THE 

MYSTERY   OF   SLEEP 

BY 

JOHN  BIGELOW,  LLD. 


SECOND    EDITION,    REWRITTEN    AND 
MUCH    ENLARGED 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

HARPER   £r   BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 
1903 


Copyright,  1896,  1903,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 


All  rifhts  reserved. 
Published  February,  1903. 


"  I  have  remembered  thy  name,  O  Lord,  in  the  night, 
And  have  observed  thy  law."— Psalm  cxix. 

"The  night-time  of  the  body  is  the  daytime  of  the 
soul."— IAMBLICHUS 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Why  do  we  spend  one-third  of  our  lives  in  sleep  ?- 
Prevalent  notions  fallacious 


CHAPTER  II 

Dreams  imply  imperfect  sleep — Jouffroy — Extraor- 
dinary activities  of  body  and  mind  during  perfect 
sleep) — Dr.  Hack  Tuke  on  the  exercise  of  thought 
during  sleep — Professor  Agassiz'  dream — Thera- 
peutics of  sleep 10 

CHAPTER  III 

Sleep  interrupts  all  conscious  relations  with  the  phenom- 
enal world,  and  thus  becomes  one  of  the  vital  proc- 
esses of  spiritual  regeneration — Nocturnal  darkness 
an  ally  of  sleep — Our  transformation  in  sleep — Lu- 
cretius— Bryant's  "Land  of  Dreams" — Voltaire — 
Venerable  Bede — Swedenborg  as  a  seer 21 

CHAPTER  IV 

Most  conspicuous  changes  wrought  during  sleep  psy- 
chical, not  physical — Seclusion  from  the  world  most 
perfect  in  sleep — Why  the  aged  sleep  less  than  others 
— Mysterious  effects  of  sleep  upon  the  demands  of  our 
V 


Contents 

PAGB 

appetites — Our  greater  endurance  while  sleeping 
than  when  awake — The  need  for  sleep  diminishes  as 
the  organization  of  our  lives  becomes  more  com- 
plex— Buffon — ^Esculapius — Letter  of  lamblichus 
— Mohammed — Cicero's  dream  40 

CHAPTER  V 

The  most  important  events  in  human  history  initiated 
during  sleep — Altruism  first  taught  in  sleep — Ex- 
traordinary spiritual  uses  of  sleep  recorded  in  the 
Bible 56 

CHAPTER  VI 

Spiritual  influence  of  sleep  illustrated  by  its  privation 
— Diseases  resulting — Toussaint  L'Ouverture's  de- 
fence of  Hayti — Difference  in  sleeping  habits  of 
domestic  and  of  predatory  animals — Low  average 
of  longevity  among  savages  explained — Habits  of 
venomous  and  non-venomous  serpents  contrasted 
— Prominence  of  sleep  in  the  machinery  of  Shake- 
speare's plays — Dr.  Wilkinson — Marie  Manaceine 
— Byron's  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers — 
Alexander  von  Humboldt  ...  77 

CHAPTER  VII 

What  is  meant  by  God's  resting  on  the  seventh  day 
of  creation  and  enjoining  the  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath as  a  day  of  rest  for  his  people 103 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Prominence  given  to  the  morning  hour  in  the  Bible, 

and  its  spiritual  significance 113 

vi 


Contents 
CHAPTER  IX 

PAGE 

Our  external  and  our  internal  memory — Coleridge's 
"  body  terrestrial "  and  "  body  celestial " — The  opera- 
tions of  our  non-phenomenal  life  presumably  as  im- 
portant as  those  of  our  phenomenal  life 130 

CHAPTER  X 

In  sleep  we  die  daily — God  alone  is  life — All  causes  are 
spiritual — All  phenomena  are  results — Scipio's  dream 
— Sleep  and  death  twins  ....  ....  143 

CHAPTER  XI 

"  Whosoever  shall  say,  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger 
of  the  hell  of  fire ' 166 

CHAPTER  XII 

Why  we  are  not  permitted  to  be  conscious  of  the  ex- 
periences of  the  soul  in  sleep — How  we  should  culti- 
vate sleep  —  Drugs  hostile  to  sleep  —  Count  Tolstoi 
on  alcoholic  stimulants  —  All  virtues  favor  sleep ; 
all  vices  discourage  it 184 

APPENDIX  A 
Swedenborg  as  a  witness 199 

APPENDIX  B 
Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Calvin  in  the  spirit  world   .     204 


TO    MY    READERS 

IN  the  year  1896  I  gave  to  the  public  a  mono- 
graph in  which  I  endeavored  to  expose  and  un- 
settle, if  not  dispel,  some  popular  delusions — as  I 
regarded  them — about  sleep.  Of  these  is  the  no- 
tion that  sleep  is  merely  a  state  of  rest,  of  practi- 
cal inertia  of  soul  and  body,  or,  at  most,  a  periodi- 
cal provision  for  the  reparation  of  physical  waste 
in  the  sense  that  a  well,  exhausted  during  the 
day,  fills  up  in  the  hours  of  the  night.  I  also 
tried  to  give  some  reasons  for  my  conviction  that 
no  part  of  our  lives  is  consecrated  to  nobler  or 
more  important  uses  than  that  usually  spent  in 
sleep,  or  contributes  more  —  if  so  much  —  to  dif- 
ferentiate us  from  the  beasts  that  perish.  I  also 
assigned  what  I  regarded  as  substantial  reasons 
for  believing  that  we  are  developed  psychically  or 
spiritually  during  our  sleeping  hours  as  distinctly 
and  exclusively  as  we  are  developed  physically 
and  intellectually  during  our  waking  hours ;  and 
that  it  is,  therefore,  as  much  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
so  order  our  lives  as  to  avoid  everything  apt  to 
interfere  with  or  impair  the  quality  or  quantity  of 
our  sleep,  as  in  our  waking  hours  it  is  to  respect 

ix 


To  My  Readers 

the  laws  of  life  essential  to  the  growth,  health, 
and  perfection  of  our  bodies. 

Since  that  monograph  appeared  I  have  devoted 
no  inconsiderable  portion  of  my  thoughts  and 
time  in  trying  either  to  further  confirm  or  correct 
these  views,  and  especially  to  divine,  as  far  as  is 
possible,  the  purposes  of  our  Creator  in  requir- 
ing one-third  of  our  lives  to  be  spent  in  a  state  of 
absolute  unconsciousness,  as  in  death.  The  re- 
sults of  such  study  and  meditation  have  not  only 
strengthened  my  convictions  that  the  supposed 
exemption  from  customary  toils  and  activities 
was  not  the  final  purpose  of  sleep,  but  have  also 
made  clearer  to  my  mind  the  conviction  that  no 
part  of  a  man's  life  deserves  to  be  considered  more 
indispensable  to  its  symmetrical  and  perfect  spir- 
itual development  than  the  whiles  he  is  separated 
from  the  phenomenal  world  in  sleep. 

I  have  also  been  profoundly  impressed  by  the 
abundant  evidence  that  many  of  the  events  which 
occur  in  the  waking  hours  of  our  life  are  gov- 
erned by  the  same  laws  and  are  instituted  to 
serve,  in  a  degree,  the  same  recondite  spiritual 
purposes  as  sleep.  This  has  opened  what  has 
seemed  to  me  not  only  a  very  interesting  but 
vastly  important  field  of  speculation.  I  have 
thought  we  might  find  in  lunacy,  in  idiocy,  as 
indeed  in  most  of  the  chagrins,  discomforts,  and 
infirmities  to  which  all  are  more  or  less  exposed 
while  in  the  flesh,  an  explanation  and  a  use,  on 
the  lines  of  thought,  which  conduct  to  what  seems 

x 


To  My  Readers 

to  be  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  divine 
economy  of  sleep ;  and  that  all  of  them,  like  sleep, 
are  providential  interventions  to  relax  the  too 
strong  hold  which  the  natural  world  may  have 
been  securing  upon  our  affections. 

Adequately  to  present  the  results  of  these  studies, 
and  to  illume  the  enlarged  horizon  which  they 
have  revealed,  has  rendered  it  necessary  to  re- 
write and  to  so  greatly  expand  the  work  of  1896 
as  practically  to  make  a  new  book  of  it.  I  vent- 
ure to  hope  that  my  readers  will  find  in  its  con- 
tents a  proportionate  increase  of  interest  and  im- 
portance. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  incur  the  suspicion  of  having 
sought  to  penetrate  mysteries  which  are  meant 
to  be  impenetrable,  but  I  believe  that  the  great 
Creator's  works  cease  to  be  mysteries  when  their 
revelation  will  not  expose  them  to  profanation; 
nor  do  I  doubt  that  the  mysteries  of  sleep — like 
the  mysteries  of  godliness,  of  charity,  of  the  domes- 
tic affections — will  be  revealed  to  us  just  so  fast 
and  so  far  as  we  prepare  ourselves  to  receive 
them  and  carry  their  lessons  into  our  daily  lives. 
Were  they  studied  with  like  incentives  and  by  the 
same  class  of  minds  as  the  mysteries  of  natural 
science  are  now  studied,  the  one  would  proba- 
bly seem  to  us  no  more  mysterious  than  the  other, 
though  the  results  might  prove  far  more  sur- 
prising. 

It  scarcely  requires  prophetic  vision  to  foresee 
the  time  when  the  art  or  science  of  sleeping  will 

xi 


To  My  Readers 

be  studied  as  systematically  as  the  physiology 
of  our  nutritive  and  nervous  systems,  and  then 
much  of  the  literature  and  pseudo-science  now 
in  vogue,  relating  to  both,  will  find  their  way 
into  the  wallet  "wherein  Time  puts  alms  for 
Oblivion." 

For  the  convenience  of  my  readers  I  will  here 
briefly  recapitulate  the  several  propositions  which 
I  have  tried  in  the  following  pages  to  commend 
to  their  serious  consideration. 

I.  It  is  not  consistent  with  any  rational  notion 
of  a  divine  Providence  that  we  should  pass  one- 
third  of  our  lives  under  conditions  in  which  we 
could  experience  no  spiritual  growth  or  develop- 
ment, as  would  be  the  inevitable  result  of  absolute 
rest. 

II.  Sleep  does  not  represent  or  imply  rest  in 
the  sense  of  inactivity  or  idleness,  psychical  or 
physical. 

III.  The  suspension  of  our  consciousness  during 
sleep  simply  interrupts  our  relations  temporarily 
with  the  phenomenal  world  and  shelters  us  from 
its  distractions  and  fascinations,  without  which 
spiritual  growth    and  development  —  the    divine 
purpose  of  our  creation — would  be  impossible. 

IV.  Neither  the  physical  nor  psychical  changes 
which   we   are   conscious   of   having    undergone 
during  the  hours  devoted  to  sleep  can  be  realized 
or  accounted  for  if  the  activity  of  those  faculties, 
respectively,  were  suspended. 

V.  The  involuntary  subjugation  of  the  senses 

xii 


To  My  Readers 

periodiccilly  to  sleep  is  one  of  the  vital  processes 
of  spiritual  regeneration,  without  which  such  re- 
generation would  be  impossible — as  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  the  most  important  events  in 
the  history  of  our  race  were  initiated  during 
sleep. 

VI.  The  spiritual  influence  and  vital  importance 
of  sleep   is  further  demonstrated   by  the  conse- 
quences of  its  privation. 

VII.  All  virtues  favor  sleep  and  all  vices  dis- 
courage it. 

VIII.  The  difference  between  sleep  and  death 
may  be  more  a  difference  in  duration  than  con- 
dition.    In  sleep  do  we  not  die  daily?    Do  we  not 
come  for  a  time  into  the  same  presences  and  under 
the  same  influences  as  when  we  finally  quit  our 
earthly  body? 

IX.  Should  we  not  regard  every  wish  thwarted, 
scheme  frustrated,  project  brought  to  naught,  as 
a  Sabbath  of  rest,  like  sleep,  to  remind  us  that 
we  are  not  sufficient  unto  ourselves,  and    provi- 
dentially designed  "to  withdraw  man  from  his 
purpose,  to  hide  pride  from  man,  and  to  keep  back 
his  soul  from  the  pit "?    Is  it  not  thus  that  we  are 
taught  to  regard  all  our  disappointments  in  life  as 
manifestations  of  divine  love  and  contributory  to 
spiritual  development? 

X.  Lunatics,  idiots,  and  all  persons  with  more 
or  less  unbalanced  minds  must  be  presumed  to 
be  in  their  waking  hours  partially  sheltered  from 
the   undue   influence   of   the   phenomenal    world 

xiii 


To  My  Readers 

upon  them,  just  as  the  sane  and  whole  are  thus 
sheltered  in  their  sleep,  and  protected  from  evils 
with  which  they  may  be  unfitted  to  cope. 

XI.  How  these  views  should  modify  the  popular 
notions  of  our  duty  towards  the  feeble-minded, 
the  unfortunate,  and  unhappy. 

J.  B. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  SLEEP 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  SLEEP 


CHAPTER  I 

Why  do  we  spend  one -third  of  our  lives  in   sleep? — 
Prevalent  notions  fallacious. 


WHY  is  it  that  the  children  of  men  are  required 
by  the  inexorable  laws  of  their  existence  to  spend, 
on  an  average,  eight  out  of  every  twenty-four 
hours,  or  one-third  of  their  entire  lives,  in  sleep? 

Why  is  their  consciousness  periodically  sus- 
pended, and  so  large  a  part  of  every  day  appar- 
ently wasted  that  might  be  devoted  to  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  duties  which  the  Author  of  their  being 
has  imposed  upon  them,  or  in  such  innocent  in- 
dulgences as  He  has  qualified  them  to  enjoy? 

Why  is  this  apparent  waste  made  one  of  the 
conditions  of  life,  not  only  to  those  who  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  created  in  God's  image,  but 
to  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  as  well? 

These  are  questions  which  pass  through  the 
minds  of  most  thoughtful  people  at  some  time  in 
their  lives,  and,  to  such  as  have  grasped  the  great 
and  pregnant  truth,  that  in  the  divine  economy 
there  can  be  no  waste,  they  are  very  puzzling. 

I 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

"  Why  try  to  prolong  life  if  so  many  hours  are 
to  be  spent  in  sleep?"  asked  Kant.  He  could 
find  no  better  solution  of  the  question  than  early 
rising  and  a  decrease  of  the  hours  devoted  to 
sleep  —  a  theory  which  assumed  that  all  time 
spent  in  sleep  was  wasted. 

Most  people  are  content  with  the  theory  that 
we  get  fatigued  with  the  labors  of  the  day,  and 
need  rest  for  refreshment  simply  because  we  are 
fatigued,  as  the  soil  needs  fertilizing  to  main- 
tain its  productiveness. 

Even  science  has  found  no  better  use  for  sleep 
than  to  repair  the  waste  of  tissue ;  to  thus  "  knit 
up  the  ravell'd  sleave  of  care";  and  still  main- 
tains that  one  hour  out  of  three,  eight  hours  out 
of  every  twenty-four,  four  months  out  of  every 
year,  and  twenty-three  years  out  of  every  three- 
score-and-ten  are  only  a  fair  allowance  for  that 
purpose.  Such,  in  substance,  would  be  pretty 
uniformly  the  answer  that  would  be  made  to 
these  questions,  and  the  theory  that  we  rest,  and 
for  that  purpose  only,  would  as  uniformly  go 
unchallenged.  Yet  such  an  answer  assumes 
many  things  as  facts  which  are  not  facts;  and 
any  reasoning  upon  them,  therefore,  must  be  fal- 
lacious. 

When  we  say  we  sleep  that  we  may  rest,  the 
question  naturally  arises,  What  rests  in  sleep 
that  does  not  rest  equally  in  our  waking  hours? 
What  faculty  of  the  physical  or  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  is  in  repose  during  sleep?  What  single 

2 


What  Sleep  Is  Not 

function  or  energy  of  the  body  is  then  absolutely 
suspended?  Certainly  not  our  hearts,  which  do 
not  enjoy  a  moment's  rest  from  the  hour  of  our 
birth  to  our  decease.  It  is  always  in  the  effort  to 
send  our  blood  laden  with  vital  energy  through 
every  vein,  artery,  and  tissue  of  our  bodies.  The 
lungs,  too,  are  equally  restless  in  their  endeavor 
to  provide  themselves  with  fresh  air  to  purify  this 
blood  and  qualify  it  for  its  appointed  use.  The 
process  of  inspiration  and  expiration  by  the  aid 
of  an  elaborate  and  complex  system  of  muscular 
contraction  and  expansion  goes  on  by  night  and 
by  day  with  an  unrelenting  vigor.  The  same 
is  true  of  our  stomach,  our  glands,  our  kidneys, 
and  of  all  the  other  mysterious  operations  of  our 
digestive  apparatus;  even  our  nails  and  our  hair 
are  as  tireless  as  our  heart  and  our  lungs.  The 
skin  acts  more  energetically  during  sleep  than  at 
any  other  time,  as  the  quality  of  the  atmosphere 
in  the  room  where  we  have  slept,  if  not  specially 
ventilated  meantime,  will  testify  in  the  morning; 
and  it  is  in  consequence  of  the  more  active  per- 
spiration going  on  during  these  hours  that  is 
to  be  attributed  our  greater  liability  to  chills  dur- 
ing sleep  than  at  other  times.  Both  observation 
and  experiment  prove  that  food  taken  just  before 
sleeping  is  digested  and  assimilated  much  better 
than  if  the  man  or  the  animal  is  forced  to  walk 
or  run  or  take  active  exercise  immediately  after 
feeding. 

A  person  in  good  health,  while  sleeping,  will 
3 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

expel  from  his  body,  by  perspiration  and  with- 
out resorting  to  any  artificial  means  of  promoting 
it,  twice  as  much  matter  as  in  the  same  period 
of  time  while  awake;  and  nothing  is  excreted 
through  the  skin  that  has  not  been  thoroughly 
digested  and  deprived  of  every  quality  of  use 
to  the  body  it  leaves. 

The  kidneys,  too,  not  infrequently  act  more 
energetically  during  sleep  than  in  a  waking  con- 
dition. 

Young  plants  grow  in  the  night-time,  which 
is  also  their  time  for  sleep.  The  same  is  true  of 
young  animals. 

Science  now  recognizes  the  fact  also  that  every 
impression  made  upon  the  mind  of  the  sleeper  pro- 
duces a  change  in  the  volume  of  the  brain.  This 
proves  that  the  various  sensory  nerves,  as  well 
as  the  spinal  cord,  are  practically  incapable  of 
fatigue.  The  care  that  man  and  all  animals 
take  when  desiring  sleep — to  shelter  themselves 
from  light  and  noise,  to  close  the  doors  and  drop 
the  curtains,  to  exclude  all  disturbing  impres- 
sions from  the  external  world  —  teaches  us  that 
the  whole  nervous  system — even  that  of  our  con- 
sciousness, which  we  are  wont  to  speak  of  as 
suspended — reserves  its  power  of  action  during 
sleep  as  completely  as  at  any  other  time.  Certain 
birds  sleep  standing  on  one  leg.  Water-birds 
while  asleep  have  a  habit  of  gently  paddling 
with  one  foot,  showing  that  a  group  of  volun- 
tary muscles  are  continually  active.  Soldiers 

4 


What  Sleep  Is  Not 

frequently  fall  asleep  on  horseback,  and  even 
on  foot,  during  a  night  march;  nor  is  it  very 
uncommon  for  persons  to  answer  questions  in- 
telligibly without  awaking  or  remembering  the 
circumstance.  Statistics  have  been  collected 
showing  that  out  of  two  hundred  college  stu- 
dents, forty-one  per  cent,  of  males  and  thirty-seven 
per  cent,  of  females  talk  in  their  sleep.  So  in  our 
dreams  we  receive  impressions  showing  that  not 
only  the  optic,  auditory,  olfactory,  and  gustatory 
nerves  are  active  during  sleep,  but  that  the  cor- 
responding cerebral  nerve  -  centres  are  active. 
Eyes  are  closed,  not  because  the  faculty  of  open- 
ing them  or  seeing  with  them  is  suspended,  but 
simply  because  we  do  not  will  to  open  and  see 
with  them,  and  this  is  just  what  happens  with 
all  of  us  frequently  in  our  waking  hours,  as  when 
we  close  our  eyes  to  exclude  the  light,  to  favor 
meditation,  or  in  prayer,  and  always  at  night  to 
favor  sleep.  There  is  no  visual  faculty  suspend- 
ed in  the  one  case  more  than  in  the  other.  That 
our  hearing  is  generally  less  acute  during  sleep 
than  at  other  times  is  not  the  result  of  any  sus- 
pension of  the  auditory  functions,  but,  as  in  our 
waking  hours  frequently,  from  the  lack  of  at- 
tention. Any  unusual  sound,  such  as  would  be 
likely  to  arrest  our  attention  in  our  waking  hours, 
is  apt  to  awaken  us  from  sleep.  No  one  can  have 
travelled  much  on  our  ocean  steamers  without  re- 
marking the  prompt  effect  upon  the  sleeping  pas- 
senger of  any  unusual  noise,  though  it  be  far  less 

5 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

considerable  than  the  familiar  noise  of  the  ma- 
chinery. Very  few  will  sleep  through  even  a 
pause  in  the  operation  of  the  machinery.  So 
a  disagreeable  or  untimely  odor  or  smoke  will 
often  awaken  a  sleeper  as  soon  as  it  would  have 
been  noticed  by  him  if  awake. 

"Nature  has  no  pause,"  said  Goethe,  "and 
visits  with  a  curse  all  inaction/' 

People  whose  brains  are  most  severely  exercised 
are  apt  to  find  their  most  congenial  recreations 
in  games  of  some  kind  which  require  a  concen- 
trated activity  of  the  mental  powers,  while  no  one 
of  them  finds  it  in  mental  inactivity,  not  even 
idiots. 

The  student  when  he  wearies  of  one  subject 
seeks  his  recreation  in  another.  He  drops  his 
law  or  his  theology  or  his  astronomy  and  takes 
up,  mayhap,  poetry  or  music  or  history  I  knew 
a  clever  architect  who  diverted  his  mind  from 
professional  strain  by  the  study  of  geometry, 
and  always  travelled  with  a  copy  of  Legendre  in 
his  satchel.  He  did  not  want  rest;  he  wanted 
change.  Milton  went  to  his  organ  for  diversion. 
Dr.  Franklin's  favorite  recreation  was  chess,  and 
Jefferson's  his  violin.  Whist  and  other  games 
of  chance,  so  called,  are  popular  recreations  for 
professional  men. 

There  is  a  very  large  number  of  both  sexes, 
unfortunately,  who  do  little  or  nothing  from  one 
week's  end  to  the  other  to  fatigue  mind  or  body, 
who  yet  fall  asleep  just  as  punctually  and  sleep 

6 


Matter  and  Spirit  Never  Tire 

quite  as  long  as  the  average  laboring  man.  This 
could  not  be  the  case  if  rest — cessation  from  vol- 
untary labor — were  the  only  or  main  purpose  of 
sleep. 

It  is  now  pretty  generally  conceded,  1  believe, 
that  all  the  constituents  of  a  human  being  are 
either  spiritual  or  material ;  that  what  of  us  is 
not  spiritual  is  material,  and  what  is  not  mate- 
rial is  spiritual.  Fatigue,  of  course,  cannot  be 
predicated  of  any  spiritual  quality.  No  one  will 
pretend  that  virtue,  veracity,  patience,  humility, 
brotherly  love,  are  attributes  or  qualities  of  which 
fatigue  can  be  predicated,  any  more  than  that 
twice  two  are  or  ever  could  have  been  or  become 
more  or  less  than  four. 

This,  of  course,  is  equally  true  of  the  opposite 
spiritual  qualities,  such  as  viciousness,  lying,  in- 
humanity, pride,  selfishness,  hate,  etc.  No  man, 
after  feeling  benevolent  for  a  few  hours,  needs 
to  rest  his  benevolence,  and  for  that  purpose  be- 
come meanly  selfish  during  his  repose — a  neces- 
sary condition  either  of  its  absence  or  its  sus- 
pension. On  the  other  hand,  if  anything  about 
us  requires  repose  for  reparation  or  restoration, 
then  it  must  be  the  "soul's  dark  cottage"  which 
the  spirit  inhabits  —  our  material  bodies  But 
matter  has  no  faculty  of  initiating  or  of  arresting 
motion.  It  is  absolutely  inert.  If  matter  could 
be  fatigued  it  could  and  would  waste,  shrink  in 
bulk,  and  perish,  if  not  allowed  to  rest  and  re- 
cuperate ;  but  no  one  pretends  that  the  aggregate 

7 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

of  matter  in  the  world  is  capable  of  being  dimin- 
ished or  increased,  to  whatever  process  it  may 
be  subjected  by  man.  If  matter  could  experience 
fatigue  it  might  be  annihilated — a  result  which, 
scientifically  speaking,  is  not  supposable;  and  if 
any  particle  of  matter  could  experience  fatigue 
and  the  need  of  rest,  all  the  matter  in  the  uni 
verse  must  have  the  like  experience.  How  upon 
such  an  assumption  can  we  explain  the  tireless 
energy  of  the  countless  planets,  which  have  been 
dancing  to  the  music  of  the  spheres  around  their 
respective  suns  from  the  dawn  of  creation,  without 
relaxing  their  speed  in  the  slightest  degree  or 
stopping  a  moment  for  repairs  in  all  the  myriads 
of  years?  If  any  particle  or  fraction  of  our  bodies 
requires  rest,  the  planets  must  need  it  incalculably 
more. 

We  shall  search  in  vain  for  any  law,  attribute, 
or  property  of  matter  or  of  spirit  which  prescribes 
rest  as  an  end  or  subjective  necessity  under  any 
imaginable  circumstances.* 

*  "  Throughout  nature  there  is  no  example  of  absolute 
rest,  all  asserted  rest  being  expressions  of  relations  of  bodies 
to  other  parts  of  space.  Atomical  motion  attends  all  thermal 
variation  ;  this  variation  is  incessant  and  universal.  Chemi- 
cal and  polar  motion  is  unceasing;  and  the  diurnal  and 
the  annual  motion  of  the  earth  perpetually  change  the  posi- 
tion of  every  atom  of  its  mass.  The  interconnected  move- 
ments of  the  solar  system,  and  the  motion  of  that  system 
towards  a  distant  constellation,  together  with  the  motion 
of  binary  stars  and  of  nebula?,  are  evidences  of  continual 
transition,  from  which  we  reasonably  infer  a  motion  of 
the  whole  stellar  world,  the  verification  o!  which  is  prevented 

8 


No  Absolute  Rest  in  Nature 

When  death  comes  and  separates  the  soul  from 
the  body  and  this  corruptible  puts  on  incorruption, 
matter  does  not  part  with  a  single  attribute  or 
quality  necessary  to  its  perpetuity  and  integrity, 
any  more  than  a  house  does  when  a  tenant  moves 
out  of  it;  even  then  it  does  not  rest,  but,  like  the 
house,  becomes  as  much  as  ever  before  the  habita- 
tion of  some  other  form  of  life. 

Yet  every  night  of  our  lives  sleep  descends 
upon  us  like  an  armed  man;  prostrates  us  with 
barbarous  indifference  on  beds  of  down  or  straw, 
and  closes  up  all  our  communications  with  the 
workaday  world,  as  in  death. 

by  the  absence  of  appreciable  parallax  and  by  the  limited 
period  of  our  observation.  The  universe  itself  is  relieved 
from  a  sullen  sameness  and  is  endowed  with  activity,  whirl- 
ing life,  and  beauty,  simply  by  virtue  of  the  never-ending 
motion  of  each  and  every  atom." 

"...  The  balance  of  the  chemist  has  also  overturned 
the  belief  so  long  entertained  of  the  destructibility  of  matter. 
Now  the  conception  of  its  diminution,  or  expulsion  from 
existence,  is  as  impossible  as  that  of  its  increase  or  appear- 
ance from  nothing ;  and  as  the  matrix  of  inherent  energy, 
and  representing  by  its  never-ending  motion  a  mechanical 
force,  its  augmentation,  or  annihilation,  obliterates  all  idea 
of  laws  of  force.  It  is,  therefore,  concluded  that  the  quantity 
of  matter  and  of  inherent  energy  in  the  universe  is  always 
the  same." — One  Law  in  Nature,  by  Captain  H.  M.  Lazelle, 
United  States  Army. 


CHAPTER  II 

Dreams  imply  imperfect  sleep — Jouffroy — Extraordinary 
activities  of  body  and  mind  during  perfect  sleep — Dr- 
Hack  Tuke  on  the  exercise  of  thought  during  sleep — 
Professor  Agassiz'  dream — Therapeutics  of  sleep. 


SCIENCE  is  obliged  to  admit  that  in  sleep  neither 
the  intellectual  nor  moral  faculties  are  at  rest  all 
the  time.  The  voluminous  history  of  dreams, 
somnambulism,  hypnotism,  quasi  -  supernatural 
exhibitions  of  memory,  of  courage,  and  of  moral 
susceptibility,  must  all  be  accounted  for  before 
the  dogma  of  sleep  can  be  accepted  as  implying 
at  any  moment  a  state  of  absolute  rest  for  our 
spiritual  any  more  than  for  our  material  natures 
— for  our  souls  than  for  our  bodies. 

"I  have  never  been  able  to  comprehend,"  says 
Jouffroy,  "what  people  mean  who  say  that  the 
mind  sleeps.  It  is  impossible  to  show  that  in 
sleep  there  are  moments  when  the  mind  does  not 
dream.  Having  no  recollection  of  these  dreams 
does  not  prove  that  we  have  not  dreamed. 

"  It  will  not  be  questioned  that  the  mind  is  some- 
times awake  while  the  senses  sleep. 

"  The  fact  that  the  mind  sometimes  sleeps  with 
the  senses  is  not  established.  All  the  analogies 

10 


The  Mind  Always  Awake 

go  to  prove  that  the  mind  is  always  awake.  Con- 
flicting facts  are  required  to  destroy  this  inference  ; 
but  all  facts,  on  the  contrary,  seem  to  confirm 
it.  To  me  they  imply  this  conclusion — that  the 
mind  during  sleep  is  not  in  a  special  mood  or 
state,  but  that  it  goes  on  and  develops  itself  abso- 
lutely as  in  the  waking  hours."* 

A  rustic  visiting  a  large  city  for  a  night  or  two 
finds  it  difficult  to  sleep.  A  person  reading  a 
book  finds  it  difficult  to  fix  his  attention  while 
conversation  is  going  on  around  him.  After 
a  while  the  novelty  of  these  distractions  wears 
off  and  fails  to  demand  or  receive  any  atten- 
tion. Evidently  the  distraction  in  either  case 
was  not  an  affair  of  the  senses,  but  purely  of 
the  mind. 

It  is  not  the  senses  that  first  hear  the  noises 
of  the  street  or  of  the  salon  annoyingly,  and 
gradually  less,  and  finally  not  at  all;  it  is  the 
attention  of  the  mind  which  is  occupied  with  or 
neglects  these  sensations.  The  same  sounds  only 
render  the  savage  and  the  blind  man  more  sen- 
sible of  them;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  familiar- 
ity with  the  sounds  renders  the  rustic  in  town 
constantly  more  insensible  to  them. 

Were  the  effect  physical,  and  dependent  on 
the  body  and  not  on  the  mind,  this  action  would 
be  contrary  and  logically  impossible;  for  either 
the  habit  weakens  the  physical  organ  or  sharpens 

*  Jouffroy,  Melanges  Philosophiques  du  Sommeil. 
IT 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

it.  It  could  not  yield  both  these  results  at  once, 
as  it  does  in  the  case  we  have  supposed  of  the 
savage  and  the  blind. 

The  fact  is  that  it  neither  weakens  nor  sharpens 
the  sensibility  of  the  organ,  which  receives  al- 
ways the  same  sensations;  but  when  these  sen- 
sations interest  or  concern  us  the  mind  takes  a 
note  of  and  analyzes  them.  When  they  cease 
to  interest  or  concern  us  the  mind  gets  accus- 
tomed gradually  to  neglect  them  and  does  not 
analyze  them. 

The  phenomenon  is  purely  psychical,  not  phys- 
ical. The  noise  being  the  same  on  the  hun- 
dredth day  of  the  rustic's  sojourn  in  the  city  as 
the  first,  the  difference  in  the  effect  can  only  be 
in  the  mind.  Had  the  soul  slept  with  the  body  it 
would  have  been  equally  put  to  sleep  in  both 
cases,  and  one  would  see  no  reason  for  either 
awakening  rather  than  the  other. 

These  facts  seem  to  amount  to  a  demonstration 
that  the  mind  does  not  sleep  like  the  body,  but, 
disquieted  by  unaccustomed  sensations,  it  awak- 
ens, and  when  those  sensations  become  familiar, 
they  do  not  awaken  it. 

There  is  an  explanation  of  this  difference  which 
only  confirms  its  correctness.  If  the  mind  be  dis- 
quieted by  unusual  noises  it  has  need  of  the 
senses  to  inform  it  of  the  cause  and  to  relieve 
it  from  its  inquietude.  It  is  that  which  obliges 
it  to  awake;  hence  we  find  ourselves  disquieted 
by  an  extraordinary  noise,  which  would  not  have 

12 


The  Scotch  Ploughboy 

happened  had  not  our  minds  been  aroused  by 
this  noise  before  we  awoke. 

There  is  but  one  explanation  of  this.  The 
soul  or  mind  which  watches  knows  whence  come 
the  sensations,  and  does  not  disquiet  itself  nor 
awaken  the  sensations  to  report  on  them  unless 
they  are  unfamiliar  and  involve  some  duty  to 
be  performed  or  evil  to  be  avoided.  The  unusual 
noise  of  a  maid  sweeping  the  carpet  in  a  room 
adjoining  your  chamber,  though  comparatively 
feeble,  will  awaken  the  sleeper,  while  the  whistle 
of  a  railway  train  which  may  be  heard  for  miles, 
but  to  which  he  is  inured,  will  not  disturb  him. 
So  a  nurse  will  sleep  through  all  noises  which 
do  not  concern  her  patient,  while  he  cannot  turn 
in  his  bed,  nor  draw  a  sigh,  or  even  exhibit  an  un- 
usual respiration,  without  attracting  her  attention. 

So  also  we  may  be  quite  sure  of  awakening 
at  a  fixed  hour  if  on  the  previous  evening  we  re- 
solve to  do  so ;  but  if  we  rely  upon  others  to  awaken 
us  we  lose  the  faculty.  The  mind  is  our  alarm- 
clock,  which,  if  properly  set,  rarely  deceives  us. 
The  senses  are  merely  the  instruments  which 
obey  the  directions  of  the  mind. 

The  experience  of  the  Scotch  ploughboy  who 
complained  that  he  never  enjoyed  a  night's  rest 
because  as  soon  as  he  put  his  head  on  his  pillow 
it  was  time  to  get  up  again,  is  an  experience  by 
no  means  rare,  especially  among  the  young  who 
live  a  good  deal  in  the  open  air  and  indulge  no 
habits  to  interfere  with  sleep. 

13 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

The  reader's  attention  will  now  be  invited  to 
some  other  phenomena  which  are  inconsistent 
with  the  idea  that  sleep  is  a  condition  of  absolute 
repose,  and  which  science  neither  attempts  to  gain- 
say nor  explain. 

Dreams  ordinarily  imply  more  or  less  imper- 
fect sleep;  a  partial  interruption  only  of  our  rela- 
tions with  external  objects;  the  twilight  or  dawn 
of  the  phenomenal  world  as  we  are  just  entering 
it  in  the  morning  or  just  leaving  it  at  night. 

As  Robert  Herrick  sings: 

"Here  we  are  all  by  day;  by  night  we're  hurled 
By  dreams  each  one  into  a  several  world." 

They  are  to  the  sleeper  what  the  shore  is  to 
the  swimmer  when,  emerging  from  the  sea,  his 
feet  get  support  from  the  earthly  bottom.  Of  the 
dreams — or,  rather,  of  the  mental  or  spiritual  oper- 
ations which  we  experience  between  this  twilight 
and  dawn ; — that  is,  while  our  sleep  is  profound — 
our  memory  takes  no  note.  We  are  only  con- 
scious of  dreams  which  occur  when  the  phenom- 
enal world  is  only  partially  excluded  from  our 
consciousness ;  when  we  are,  as  it  were,  mounting 
the  shore  from  the  deep  waters  in  which  our  souls 
have  been  immersed.  Hence,  perhaps,  the  con- 
fused, inconsequential,  and  fantastic  character 
of  what  we  can  recall  of  most  of  them.  The  pre- 
sumption, therefore,  is  that  what  takes  place 
in  our  profound  sleep,  which  is  not  in  the  least 
degree  adulterated  by  direct  influences  from  the 

14 


All  Dreaming  Imperfect  Sleep 

phenomenal  world,  is  entirely  free  from  what 
seems  often  so  improbable  and  fantastic  in  our 
remembered  dreams — which  are  obviously  a  med- 
ley of  emanations  from  two  widely  different  worlds 
or  states  of  being.* 

All  dreaming,  as  distinguished  from  sleep,  is 
imperfect  sleep;  it  is  a  condition  in  which  the 
phenomenal  world  has  already  begun  to  dawn 
upon  us  again.  Our  consciousness,  of  course, 
returns  with  it,  pari  passu.  One  never  remembers 
a  dream  without  waking,  nor  is  one  conscious 
of  dreaming  until  partially  awake.  Jouffroy  was 
very  right  in  affirming  that  our  minds  were  ac- 
tive in  sleep  as  at  other  times ;  but  neither  facts 
nor  logic  will  support  the  contention  "that  we 
never  sleep  without  dreaming." 

The  sleep-walker,  or  somnambulist,  exhibits 
at  times  even  more  vitality  and  energy  than  he 
would  be  capable  of  exhibiting  in  a  waking  state. 
He  not  only  walks,  runs,  rides,  and  does  other 
things  which  he  is  accustomed  to  do,  but  with 
his  eyes  entirely  closed  he  seems  to  have  percep- 
tions supernaturally  acute.  He  walks  with  con- 
fidence and  safety  along  the  roofs  of  houses,  on 
the  banks  of  rivers,  and  other  perilous  places, 
where  nothing  could  have  tempted  him  to  go 

*  In  the  citation  above  given  from  his  writings  Jouffroy 
confounds  the  impressions  made  in  dreams,  of  which  we 
are  more  or  less  conscious,  with  impressions  received  in 
profound  sleep,  of  which  we  are  rarely,  if  ever,  conscious 
except  through  divine  permission. 

15 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

when  awake.  What  is  more  marvellous,  he  will 
write  with  critical  accuracy  in  prose  and  verse ; 
he  will  compose  music  ;  he  will  choose  from  among 
many  specimens  those  best  adapted  to  the  most 
delicate  work,  with  a  promptness  and  precision 
of  which,  when  awake,  he  would  be  wholly  in- 
capable. 

"That  the  exercise  of  thought — and  this  on  a 
high  level — is  consistent  with  sleep  can  hardly 
be  doubted,"  says  Dr.  Hack  Tuke,  an  eminent 
English  authority.  "  Arguments  are  employed 
in  debate  which  are  not  always  illogical.  We 
dreamed  one  night,  subsequent  to  a  lively  con- 
versation with  a  friend  on  spiritualism,  that  we 
instituted  a  number  of  test  experiments  in  ref- 
erence to  it.  The  nature  of  these  tests  was  re- 
tained vividly  in  the  memory  after  waking.  They 
were  by  no  means  wanting  in  ingenuity,  and 
proved  that  the  mental  operations  were  in  good 
form. 

"  That  the  higher  moral  sentiments  are  called 
into  action  in  some  instances  must  be  admitted 
by  those  who  take  the  trouble  to  analyze  the  mo- 
tives by  which  they  have  been  actuated  during 
sleep.  The  conscience  may  be  as  loud  in  its 
calls  and  reproofs  in  the  night  as  in  the  day. 

"  The  memory,  freed  from  distraction  as  it  some- 
times is,  is  so  vivid  as  to  enable  the  sleeper  to 
recall  events  which  had  happened  years  before 
and  which  had  been  entirely  forgotten. 

"The   dreamer  is   free   from   the   nervousness 
16 


High  Thought  in  Sleep 

or  lack  of  courage  or  dread  of  the  opinion  of  others 
from  which  he  may  suffer  during  the  waking 
state."* 

It  deserves  to  be  noted  here  that  neither  mes- 
merism, animal  magnetism,  hypnotism,  nor  any 
of  the  modern  forms  of  super-normal  or  voluntary 
sleep  can  with  propriety  be  attributed  to  what 
are  commonly  regarded  as  the  chief  and  normal 
provocatives  of  sleep — fatigue  and  exhaustion. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  all  are  used  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  in  the  treatment  of  disease  and  as 
a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  the  most  important 
medical  schools  in  the  world. 

In  artificial  sleep  there  may  be  exhibited  the 
same  evidences  of  languor  and  fatigue.  Hypno- 
sis may  be  induced  by  presenting  to  the  hypnotic 
any  one  idea  or  image  either  by  speech  or  ex- 
ample, as  by  stimulating  the  organs  of  vision  or 
of  hearing  or  of  touch,  by  the  ticking  of  a  watch, 
a  monotonous  song  or  lullaby,  or  by  gently  strok- 
ing the  skin.  In  every  one  of  these  cases  the 
attention  of  the  hypnotic  is  concentrated  to  a 
single  object,  and  gradually  detached  from  all 
else  of  the  phenomenal  world.  This  is  the  one 
uniform  characteristic,  I  believe,  of  all  hypnotic, 
mesmeric,  and  lethargic  conditions  whenever, 
wherever,  and  however  induced. 

The  reader  will  please  to  bear  in  mind  that 
absolute  detachment  from  the  phenomenal  world 

*  Dr.  Hack  Tuke,  Medical  Physiology  of  Dreams. 
17 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

is  the  uniform  condition  of  sleep,  however  pro- 
voked or  incited.  I  hope  later  to  further  illustrate 
the  enormous  importance  of  this  principle. 

If,  as  it  is  no  presumption  to  assume,  there  is 
nothing  of  divine  ordinance  that  goes  to  waste, 
there  must  be  a  purpose  in  this  periodical  and 
universal  change  which  we  call  sleep,  conceived 
in  infinite  wisdom,  and  of  course,  therefore,  for 
an  infinitely  important  purpose,  and  what  we 
call  rest  is  only  an  incident,  and  certainly  cannot 
be  that  ultimate  purpose. 

What,  then,  is  that  ultimate  purpose? 

If  we  will  reason  from  what  we  know,  or  easi- 
ly can  know;  if  we  will  resist  the  propensity  to 
confound  material  phenomena  with  mental  and 
spiritual  operations,  and  keep  distinctly  before 
our  minds,  to  the  best  of  our  comprehension,  the 
ends  or  final  purpose  of  our  birth  and  experiences 
in  this  world,  need  we  despair  of  obtaining  a  sat- 
isfactory solution  of  all  these  problems,  without 
ascribing  to  matter  or  to  spirit  attributes  which 
neither  possesses,  and  without  any  wayward  or 
presumptuous  interpretation  of  the  ways  of  God 
to  men? 

May  we  not  be  permitted  to  extort  some  further 
information  about  the  uses  and  results  of  so  many 
activities  as  are  going  on  within  us  while  in  a 
state  of  presumed  entire  inactivity;  some  ex- 
planation of  the  daily  and  extraordinary  im- 
provement in  our  mental,  our  moral,  and  our 
physical  condition,  which  no  amount  or  kind  of 

18 


The  Dream  of  Agassiz 

labor  by  day,  when  all  our  faculties  are  assumed 
to  be  at  their  best,  ever  yields? 

The  late  Professor  Agassiz,  in  one  of  his  scien- 
tific works,  relates  a  very  curious  dream,  interest- 
ing not  only  as  a  psychological  fact,  but  as  illus- 
trating the  indefatigable  activity  of  the  human 
mind.  I  give  it  as  it  has  been  reported  by  his 
widow  in  her  biography  of  her  distinguished  hus- 
band.* 

"  He  had  been  for  two  weeks  striving  to  decipher 
the  somewhat  obscure  impression  of  a  fossil  fish  on 
the  stone  slab  in  which  it  was  preserved.  Weary  and 
perplexed,  he  put  his  work  aside  at  last,  and  tried  to 
dismiss  it  from  his  mind.  Shortly  after,  he  waked 
one  night  persuaded  that  while  asleep  he  had  seen  his 
fish  with  all  the  missing  features  perfectly  restored. 
But  when  he  tried  to  hold  and  make  fast  the  image  it 
escaped  him.  Nevertheless,  he  went  early  to  the  Jardin 
des  Plantes,  thinking  that  on  looking  anew  at  the  im- 
pression he  should  see  something  which  would  put  him 
on  the  track  of  his  vision.  In  vain — the  blurred  record 
was  as  blank  as  ever.  The  next  night  he  saw  the  fish 
again,  but  with  no  more  satisfactory  result.  When 
he  awoke  it  disappeared  from  his  memory  as  before. 
Hoping  that  the  same  experience  might  be  repeated, 
on  the  third  night  he  placed  a  pencil  and  paper  beside 
his  bed  before  going  to  sleep. 

"  Accordingly,  towards  morning  the  fish  reappeared 
in  his  dream,  confusedly  at  first,  but  at  last  with  such 
distinctness  that  he  had  no  longer  any  doubt  as  to  its 

*  Recherches  sur  les  Poissons  Fossiles.  "  Cyclopoma 
Spinosum  Agassiz."  Vol.  iv.  tab.  i.  pp.  20,  21. 

19 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

zoological  characters.  Still  half  dreaming,  in  perfect 
darkness,  he  traced  these  characters  on  the  sheet  of 
paper  at  the  bedside.  In  the  morning  he  was  surprised 
to  see  in  his  nocturnal  sketch  features  which  he  thought 
it  impossible  the  fossil  itself  should  reveal.  He  hastened 
to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and,  with  his  drawing  as  a 
guide,  succeeded  in  chiselling  away  the  surface  of  the 
stone  under  which  portions  of  the  fish  proved  to  be  hid- 
den. When  wholly  exposed  it  corresponded  with  his 
dream  and  his  drawing,  and  he  succeeded  in  classifying 
it  with  ease." 


CHAPTER  III 

Sleep  interrupts  all  conscious  relations  with  the  phenom- 
enal world,  and  thus  becomes  one  of  the  vital  proc- 
esses of  spiritual  regeneration  —  Nocturnal  darkness 
an  ally  of  sleep — Our  transformation  in  sleep — Lu- 
cretius— Bryant's  "Land  of  Dreams" — Voltaire — 
Venerable  Bede — Swedenborg  as  a  seer. 


THE  first  and  most  impressive  fact  of  universal 
experience  that  we  note  as  an  incident  of  sleep 
is  our  sudden  and  complete  dissociation  from 
the  world  in  which  we  live;  the  interruption  of 
all  conscious  relations  with  matters  which  en- 
gross our  attention  during  our  waking  hours. 
No  matter  how  much  we  are  absorbed  by  private 
or  public  affairs,  no  matter  how  vast  the  worldly 
interests  that  seem  to  be  depending  upon  every 
waking  hour,  with  what  cares  we  are  perplexed, 
what  aspirations  we  indulge,  they  can  postpone 
but  a  few  hours  at  most  the  visit  of  this  inexorable 
master,  while  they  cannot  diminish  in  the  slightest 
degree  the  lawful  measure  of  his  exactions.  Sleep, 
like  death,  knocks  at  the  doors  of  kings'  palaces 
as  well  as  poor  men's  cottages.  It  is  no  respecter 
of  persons,  and  while  it  is  levying  its  tribute  we 
are  unconscious  of  everything  we  have  done  in 

21 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  past  and  of  all  we  were  planning  to  do  in 
the  future. 

Here  we  have  one  of  the  universal  conditions 
of  sleep  which  is  coincident  and  in  harmony  with 
one  of  the  supreme  behests  of  a  Christian  life: 
utter  deliverance  from  the  domination  of  the 
phenomenal  world;  an  entire  emancipation,  for 
these  few  sleeping  hours,  from  the  cares  and 
ambitions  of  the  life  into  which  we  were  born, 
and  to  the  indulgence  of  which  we  are  inclined 
by  nature  to  surrender  the  service  of  all  our  vital 
energies.  If  it  be  a  good  thing  to  live  above  the 
world,  to  regard  our  phenomenal  life  as  transitory, 
as  designed  merely  or  mainly  to  educate  us  for  a 
more  elevated  existence,  to  serve  us  as  a  means, 
not  an  end,  then  we  have  in  sleep,  apparently, 
an  ally  and  coadjutor — at  least  to  the  extent  of 
periodically  delivering  us  from  a  servile  depend- 
ence upon  what  ought  to  be  a  good  slave,  but 
is  always  a  bad  master.  We  here  recognize  an 
incontestable  analogy  at  least  between  the  phe- 
nomena of  sleep  and  the  providential  process 
by  which  the  regeneration  of  the  human  soul  is 
to  be  begun,  and  by  which  only  such  regenera- 
tion can  be  successfully  prosecuted.  The  very 
existence  of  such  an  analogy  is  a  fact  of  immeasu- 
rable interest  and  importance,  for  such  analogies 
in  the  scheme  of  divine  government  are  not  ac- 
cidental; are  not  without  a  purpose  proportioned 
to  the  dignity  of  their  august  origin. 

There  are  certain  provisions  of  nature  which 
22 


Nature's  Provision  for  Sleep 

may  be  justly  regarded  as  auxiliaries  to  sleep 
and  universal  in  their  operation.  At  uniform 
intervals  in  every  twenty-four  hours  of  our  life 
the  sun  withdraws  its  light  and  covers  most  of 
the  habitable  portions  of  our  planet  with  a  man- 
tle of  darkness.  This  not  only  invites  sleep  by 
withholding  a  stimulus  which  discourages  it,  but 
practically  interrupts  or  modifies  all  forms  of  in- 
dustrial activity;  it  interferes  seriously  with  loco- 
motion; it  suspends  most  of  the  plans  and  occu- 
pations which  engage  our  attention  during  the 
sunlit  hours  of  the  day,  and  emancipates  us  for 
a  few  hours  of  every  day  from  the  dominion  of  our 
natural  propensities  and  passions,  which  engross 
so  much  of  our  time  and  thought  by  day. 

Nor  is  it  only  by  the  setting  of  the  sun  that 
we  are  invited  daily  to  give  pause  for  a  few  hours 
to  our  worldly  strifes. 

In  sleep  all  the  sensorial  and  other  functions 
dependent  upon  or  under  the  government  of  the 
will  are  relaxed.  To  secure  this  relaxation,  we 
seek  positions,  places,  and  all  other  conditions 
best  calculated  to  shelter  us  from  light,  noise, 
and  all  other  awakening  influences.  Like  man, 
the  lower  animals  at  such  times  choose  a  retired 
place,  assume  postures  which  demand  no  voluntary 
effort  and  which  expose  them  least  to  the  external 
forces  which  may  chance  to  environ  them.  The 
serpent  coils  himself  up  so  as  to  expose  as  little 
superficial  surface  as  possible  to  disturbance; 
the  bird  conceals  his  head  under  his  wing;  the 

23 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

porcupine  covers  his  eyes  with  his  tail ;  the  skunk 
rolls  himself  into  a  ball;  the  dog  covers  his  face 
with  his  paw. 

Why  should  the  ploughman  leave  his  plough 
in  its  furrow  when  the  sun  ceases  to  light  his 
way?  Can  any  other  more  satisfactory  reason 
be  suggested  than  that  he  may  for  a  few  hours 
be  as  one  dead  to  the  concerns  of  his  farm  and 
plough,  and  his  soul  for  a  time  be  freed  from  their 
distractions?  Whatever  else  may  be  the  final 
purpose  of  sleep,  that  purpose  also  obviously 
must  be  among  the  contributory  purposes  of  noc- 
turnal darkness;  for  that  is  one  of  its  inevitable 
and  periodical  consequences. 

The  learned  and  pious  Richard  Baxter  seems 
to  have  satisfied  himself  some  centuries  ago  that 
sleep  was  anything  but  the  state  of  repose  which 
scientists  usually  assume  it  to  be.  In  his  pro- 
found Inquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the  Soul,  he 
says: 

"  The  phenomenon  of  sleep  and  dreaming,  which 
hath  been  made  use  of  to  exalt  the  nature  of  matter, 
and  depress  the  perfection  of  the  soul ;  rightly  considered 
shew  the  very  contrary. 

"  The  opposition  of  appearances  observable  in  this 
state  (of  fatigue  and  activity,  of  insensibility  and  life 
at  the  same  time)  cannot  fail  to  shew  us  the  opposite 
natures  of  the  two  constituent  parts  of  our  composition. 
If  all  had  been  a  blank  of  thought  and  consciousness 
in  sleep,  the  soul  would  have  seemed  to  be  of  the  same 
nature  with  the  body:  if  there  had  been  no  difference 

24 


Changes  Wrought  by  Sleep 

of  thought  and  consciousness  then  and  at  other  times, 
the  body  would  have  appeared  to  be  of  the  same  nature 
with  the  soul;  nor  could  the  thinking  principle  have 
been  so  distinguishable. — Who  that  is  rational  would 
choose  to  be  without  these  informations  of  an  after- 
existence? — The  body  no  sooner  sinks  down  in  weari- 
ness and  slumber,  than  this  thing  within  enters  fresh 
upon  other  scenes  of  action:  —  and  this  without  the 
subserviency  of  its  organs,  which  are  then  disabled 
from  its  functions.  From  which  it  appears,  it  can  be 
otherwise  applied  to  than  by  external  objects  through 
the  senses.  Now  here  is  such  a  contrariety  of  natures 
obviously  discoverable,  that  it  is  a  wonder  men  could 
ever  find  in  their  hearts  to  ascribe  them  to  the  same 
thing." 

The  marvellous  changes  wrought  in  our  con- 
dition, as  well  morally  as  physically,  that  im- 
mediately follow  a  satisfactory  night's  rest — 
changes  in  no  respect  less  marvellous  than  those 
which  at  shut  of  day  temporarily  interrupt  our 
communion  with  the  phenomenal  world — require 
an  explanation  which  the  popular  notion  of  sleep 
does  not  give.  "The  morning  hour/'  says  a 
German  proverb,  "has  gold  in  its  mouth."  If 
our  sleep  has  been  unimpaired  by  indiscreet  in- 
dulgence of  the  appetites  or  passions,  by  unwonted 
anxieties  or  otherwise,  we  awake  refreshed,  with 
our  strength  renewed,  our  minds  serene  and  clear, 
our  passions  calmed,  our  animosities  soothed, 
with  kindlier  feelings  towards  our  neighbors  than 
at  any  other  hour  of  the  day.  It  is  the  hour, 

25 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

too,  which  from  time  immemorial  has  been  con- 
secrated by  saint  and  savage  to  devotional  ex- 
ercises. 

Was  it  not  wisely  said  by  the  Rev.  Horace  Bush- 
nell  that  "The  night  is  the  judgment-bar  of  the 
day.  About  all  the  reflection  there  is  in  the  world 
is  due,  if  not  directly  to  the  night,  to  the  habits 
prepared  and  fashioned  by  it "? 

"  Every  one  knows,"  says  one  of  the  profound- 
est  living  interpreters  of  the  phenomena  of  life,* 
"how  sweet  is  the  restoration  derived  from  one's 
pillow  in  health;  more  wonderful  even  yet  is  that 
which  we  derive  when  sleep  occurs  at  the  crisis 
of  severe  disease.  The  nocturnal  refreshment  of 
the  physical  frame  induces  a  similar  restoration 
of  the  spiritual.  Relaxed  from  the  tension  in 
which  it  is  held  towards  the  outer  world  while 
awake,  during  sleep  the  mind  sinks  into  a  con- 
dition comparable  to  that  in  which  it  lay  before 
consciousness  commenced ;  all  images  and  shapes 
it  is  cognizant  of  by  day  either  vanish  or  appear 
only  as  reflected  pictures ;  unexcited  from  without, 
it  gathers  itself  up  into  new  force,  new  compre- 
hension of  its  purpose;  much  that  crossed  the 
waking  thoughts,  scattered  and  entangled,  be- 
coming thereby  sifted  and  arranged.  Hence  it  is 
that  our  waking  thoughts  are  often  our  truest 

*  Lifes  Its  Nature,  Varieties,  and  Phenomena,  by  Leo 
H.  Grindon,  Lecturer  on  Botany  at  the  Royal  School  of 
Medicine,  Manchester.  Sixth  American  edition.  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1892,  p.  349. 

26 


Brother  of  Death  and  Son  of  Night 

and  finest ;  and  that  dreams  are  sometimes  eminent 
and  wise;  phenomena  incompatible  with  the  idea 
that  we  lie  down  like  grass  into  our  organic  roots 
at  night  and  are  merely  resuscitated  as  from  a 
winter  when  we  wake.  Man  is  captured  in  sleep, 
not  by  death,  but  by  his  better  nature;  to-day  runs 
in  through  a  deeper  day  to  become  the  parent 
of  to-morrow,  and  to  issue  every  morning,  bright 
as  the  morning  of  life,  and  of  life-size,  from  the 
peaceful  womb  of  the  cerebellum." 

Why  should  our  minds  be  so  much  more  alert 
in  the  morning,  and  problems  which  puzzled 
and  defied  solution  at  night  be  solved  without  a 
struggle?  Why  should  lessons  we  tried  in  vain 
to  memorize  in  the  evening  come  to  us  when  we 
awake,  with  verbal  accuracy? — a  common  expe- 
rience with  school-children.  So  things  we  search 
for  in  vain  at  even-tide  we  will  often  know  ex- 
actly where  to  look  for  after  a  night's  sleep. 
It  is  then,  too,  that  we  feel  the  charms  of  nature 
most  keenly;  that  we  are  most  disposed  to  ex- 
tenuate the  misconduct  of  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  an  extraordi- 
nary welling  -  up  of  charity  in  us  during  the 
hours  consecrated  to  what  Hesiod,  the  Greek 
poet,  describes  as  the  Brother  of  Death  and  Son 
of  Night. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  suddenly  aroused 
from  profound  sleep,  we  are  apt  for  a  time  to  have 
a  dazed  feeling,  not  knowing  exactly  where  we 
are  or  the  precise  import  of  what  is  said  to  us. 

2? 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

We  act  as  though  suddenly  brought  from  more 
congenial  and  altogether  different  surroundings, 
from  which  we  have  been  wrested  reluctantly. 
Children  are  apt  to  cry;  adults  to  scold.  We 
are  made  happy  if  permitted  to  close  our  eyes 
again  and  return  whence  we  came;  to  the  com- 
pany we  had  left. 

"A  man  must  be  next  to  a  devil/'  said  the  Rev. 
Horace  Bushnell,  "who  wakes  angry.  After  his 
unconscious  Sabbath  he  begins  another  day,  and 
every  day  is  Monday.  How  beautifully  thus  we 
are  drawn,  by  this  kind  economy  of  sleep,  to  the 
exercise  of  all  good  dispositions!  The  acrid  and 
sour  ingredients  of  evil,  the  grudges,  the  wounds 
of  feeling,  the  hypochondriac  suspicions,  the 
black  torments  of  misanthropy,  the  morose  fault- 
findings, are  so  far  tempered  and  sweetened  by 
God's  gentle  discipline  of  sleep  that  we  probably 
do  not  even  conceive  how  demoniacally  bitter 
they  would  be  if  no  such  kind  interruptions  broke 
their  spell.  .  .  .  Sleep  is  the  perfectly  passive 
side  of  our  existence,  and  best  prepares  us  to  the 
sense  of  whatever  is  to  be  got  by  mere  receptivity." 

Every  parent  is  familiar  with  the  smile  that 
at  times  comes  over  a  sleeping  infant's  face,  be- 
traying as  distinctly  as  ever  when  awake  its  ex- 
perience of  pleasing  emotions.  The  elder  Pliny 
takes  note  of  the  occasional  habit  of  infants  suck- 
ing in  their  sleep;  and  also  of  their  sometimes 
awaking  suddenly  with  every  symptom  of  terror 
and  distress.  Lucretius,  in  the  noblest  epic  poem 

28 


A  Night's  Sleep  an  Unconscious  Sabbath 

of  the  Latin  tongue,  speaks  of  race-horses,  while 
sleeping,  becoming  suddenly  bathed  in  perspira- 
tion, breathing  heavily,  and  their  muscles  strained 
as  if  starting  in  a  race;  also  of  the  hunting-dogs 
while  fast  asleep  moving  their  limbs  and  yelping 
as  if  in  pursuit  of  the  deer,  until,  awaking,  they 
are  sadly  disabused  of  their  delusions : 

"Donee  discussis  redeant  erroribus  ad  se.": 
Bryant  concludes  "  The  Land  of  Dreams,"  of 


* "  But  more,  what  Studies  please,  what  most  delight, 
And  fill  Mens  thoughts,  they  dream  them  o're  at  Night  ; 
The  Lawyers  plead,  make  Laws,  the  Souldiers  fight; 
The  Merchants  dream  of  storms,  they  hear  them  roar, 
And  often  shipwrecks  leap,  or  swim  to  shore : 
I  think  of  Natur's  powers,  my  Mind  pursues 
Her  Works,  and  e'en  in  Sleep  invokes  a  Muse : 
And  other  Studies  too,  which  entertain 
Mens  waking  thoughts,  they  dream  them  o're  again. 

"  And  not  in  thoughtful  Man  alone,  but  Beast ! 
For  often,  sleeping  Racers  pant  and  sweat, 
Breath  short,  as  if  they  ran  their  second  Heat; 
As  if  the  Barrier  down,  with  eager  pace 
They  strecht,  as  when  contending  for  the  Race. 
And  often  Hounds,  when  Sleep  hath  closed  their  Eyes, 
They  toss,  and  tumble,  and  attempt  to  rise : 
They  open  often,  often  snuff  the  Air, 
As  if  they  presst  the  footsteps  of  the  Deer; 
And  sometimes  wak't  pursue  their  fancy'd  prey, 
The  fancy'd  Deer,  that  seems  to  run  away, 
Till  quite  awak't,  the  follow'd  Shapes  decay. 
And  softer  Curs,  that  lie  and  sleep  at  home. 
Do  often  rouse,  and  walk  about  the  Room, 
And  bark,  as  if  they  saw  some  Strangers  come." 

— De  Rerum  Natura,  book  iv. 

29 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

which  his  sleeping  daughter  Julia  is  the  heroine, 
with  these  striking  lines: 

"  Dear  maid,  in  thy  girlhood's  opening  flower, 

Scarce  weaned  from  the  love  of  childish  play! 
The  tears  on  whose  cheeks  are  but  the  shower 
That  freshens  the  blooms  of  early  May! 

"  Thine  eyes  are  closed,  and  over  thy  brow 

Pass  thoughtful  shadows  and  joyous  gleams, 
And  I  know,  by  thy  moving  lips,  that  now 
Thy  spirit  strays  in  the  Land  of  Dreams. 

"  Light-hearted  maiden,  oh,  heed  thy  feet! 

Oh,  keep  where  that  beam  of  Paradise  falls: 
And  only  wander  where  thou  mayst  meet 
The  blessed  ones  from  its  shining  walls! 

"  So  shalt  thou  come  from  the  Land  of  Dreams, 
With  love  and  peace  to  this  world  of  strife : 
And  the  light  which  over  that  border  streams 
Shall  lie  on  the  path  of  thy  daily  life." 

Another  poet  of  promise,  Mr.  Watson,  has  more 
recently  given  expression  to  the  same  thought 
in  some  classical  lines,  "To  the  Unknown  God": 

"  When,  overarched  by  gorgeous  Night, 

I  wave  my  trivial  self  away; 
When  all  I  was  to  all  men's  sight 

Shares  the  erasure  of  the  day; 
Then  do  I  cast  my  cumbering  load, 
Then  do  I  gain  a  sense  of  God." 

Voltaire  tells  us  that  in  one  of  his  dreams  he 
30 


Voltaire's  Dreams 

supped  with  M.  Touron,  who  made  the  words  and 
music  (or  some  verses  which  he  sang.  Voltaire  in 
his  dream  also  made  some  rhymes  which  he  gives : 

"  Mon  cher  Touron,  que  tu  m'enchantes 
Par  la  douceur  de  tes  accents. 
Que  tes  vers  sont  doux  et  coulants. 
Tu  les  fais  corame  tu  les  chantes." 

"In  another  dream/'  he  adds,  "I  recited  the 
first  canto  of  the  'Henriade,'  but  differently  from 
the  text.  Yesterday  I  dreamed  that  verses  were 
recited  at  supper.  Some  one  remarked  that  they 
were  too  clever — qu'il  y  avail  trop  d'esprit.  I  re- 
plied that  the  verses  were  a  f£te  given  to  the  soul, 
and  ornaments  were  required  for  f£tes.  Thus  I 
have  in  my  dreams  said  things  that  I  would  hard- 
ly have  said  when  awake ;  I  have  had  reflections 
in  spite  of  myself,  in  which  I  had  no  part.  I  had 
neither  will  nor  freedom,  and  yet  I  combined  ideas 
with  sagacity,  and  even  with  some  genius.  What 
then  am  I  if  not  a  machine?"* 

In  the  same  paper  Voltaire  made  this  important 
statement :  "  Whatever  theory  you  adopt,  what- 
ever vain  efforts  you  make  to  prove  that  your 
memory  moves  your  brain,  and  that  your  brain 
moves  your  soul,  you  are  obliged  to  admit  that 
all  your  ideas  come  to  you,  in  sleep,  independently 
of  you  and  in  spite  of  you — your  will  has  no  part 


*  Dictionnaire     Philosophique,     tit.     "  Somnambuler     et 
Songer." 

31 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

in  them  whatever.  It  is  certain,  then,  that  you 
may  think  seven  or  eight  hours  consecutively,  with- 
out having  the  least  desire  to  think,  without  even 
being  aware  that  you  think." 

We  read  of  a  monk  who  had  been  appointed  to 
write  an  epitaph  for  the  tomb  of  the  Venerable 
Bede.  Being  much  puzzled  for  an  adjective  ap- 
plicable to  Bede,  he  fell  asleep,  and  in  a  dream,  it 
is  said,  was  supplied  by  an  angel  with  the  follow- 
ing lines : 

"  Hacce  jacent  fossa 
Bedae  venerabilis  ossa." 

It  was  to  this  communication  from  the  land 
of  dreams  it  is  owing  that,  since  Bede's  death, 
"  venerabilis "  has  been  uniformly  treated  as  a 
part  of  his  name.  This  is  the  only  explanation 
ever  given  of  its  selection. 

By  far  the  most  voluminous  and,  after  the 
Bible,  the  most  instructive  repository  of  facts  re- 
lating to  the  mysteries  of  sleep  in  any  literature 
will  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Emanuel  Sweden- 
borg,  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Swedish  race, 
especially  in  the  records  which  he  made  sub- 
sequent to  the  year  1747,  when,  as  he  claimed, 
his  spiritual  vision  was  opened.  Of  the  nature 
of  this  illumination  it  will  be  sufficient  to  cite 
the  following  passage  from  a  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  the  King  of  Sweden  in  consequence  of 
the  seizure  and  suppression  of  some  copies  of  a 
treatise  he  had  written  on  Con jugial  Love : 

32 


Swedenborg's  Visions 

"  I  have  already  informed  your  Majesty,  and  beseech 
you  to  recall  it  to  mind,  that  the  Lord  our  Saviour  mani- 
fested Himself  to  me  in  a  sensible  personal  appearance ; 
that  He  has  commanded  me  to  write  what  has  been 
already  done,  and  what  I  have  still  to  do :  that  He  was 
afterwards  graciously  pleased  to  endow  me  with  the 
privilege  of  conversing  with  Angels  and  Spirits,  and 
to  be  in  fellowship  with  them.  I  have  already  declared 
this  more  than  once  to  your  Majesties  in  the  presence 
of  all  the  Royal  Family  when  they  were  graciously 
pleased  to  invite  me  to  their  table  with  five  Senators, 
and  several  other  persons;  this  was  the  only  subject 
discoursed  of  during  the  repast.  Of  this  I  also  spoke 
afterwards  to  several  other  Senators ;  and  more  openly 
to  their  Excellencies  Count  de  Teffein,  Count  Bonde, 
and  Count  Hopken,  who  are  still  alive,  and  who  were 
satisfied  with  the  truth  of  it.  I  have  declared  the  same 
in  England,  Holland,  Germany,  Denmark,  Spain,  and 
at  Paris,  to  Kings,  Princes,  and  other  particular  per- 
sons, as  well  as  to  those  in  this  kingdom.  If  the  com- 
mon report  is  believed,  the  Chancellor  has  declared, 
that  what  I  have  been  reciting  are  untruths,  although 
the  very  truth.  To  say  that  they  cannot  believe  and 
give  credit  to  such  things,  therein  will  I  excuse  them, 
for  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  place  others  in  the  same 
state  that  God  has  placed  me,  so  as  to  be  able  to  con- 
vince them  by  their  own  eyes  and  ears  of  the  truth  of 
those  deeds  and  things  I  have  made  publicly  known. 
I  have  no  ability  to  capacitate  them  to  converse  with 
Angels  and  Spirits,  neither  to  work  miracles  to  dispose 
or  force  their  understandings,  to  comprehend  what  I 
say.  When  my  writings  are  read  with  attention  and 
cool  reflection  (in  which  many  things  are  to  be  met 
with  as  hitherto  unknown),  it  is  easy  enough  to  con- 
3  33 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

elude,  that  I  could  not  come  by  such  knowledge,  but 
by  a  real  vision,  and  converse  with  those  who  are  in 
the  Spiritual  World.  As  a  further  proof,  I  beseech 
their  Excellencies  to  peruse  what  is  contained  in  my 
Treatise  on  Conjugial  Love,  page  314  to  ji6.  This 
book  is  in  the  hands  of  Count  D'Ekleblad,  and  Count 
de  Bjelke.  If  any  doubt  shall  still  remain,  I  am  ready 
to  testify  with  the  most  solemn  oath  that  can  be 
offered  in  this  matter,  that  I  have  said  nothing  but 
essential  and  real  Truth,  without  any  mixture  of  decep- 
tion. This  knowledge  is  given  to  me  from  our  Saviour, 
not  for  any  particular  merit  of  mine,  but  for  the  great 
concern  of  all  Christians'  Salvation  and  Happiness; 
and  as  such,  how  can  any  venture  to  assert  it  as  false? 
That  these  things  may  appear  such  as  many  have  had 
no  Conception  of,  and  of  consequence,  that  they  can- 
not from  thence  credit,  has  nothing  remarkable  in  it, 
for  scarce  any  thing  is  known  respecting  them." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Ostinger,  Swedenborg  says 
further : 

"  To  your  Interrogation,  if  there  is  occasion  for  any 
Signs  of  an  Extraordinary  Kind  to  confirm  Mankind 
that  I  am  sent  from  the  Lord  to  do  what  I  do?  I  have 
in  reply  to  observe,  that  at  this  day  no  Signs  or  Miracles 
will  be  given,  because  they  operate  only  to  an  outward 
dead  belief,  and  do  not  avail  so  as  to  convince  the  In- 
ward State  of  the  mind  agreeable  to  the  State  of  Free- 
Will  given  to  Man  by  the  Lord,  as  the  proper  means  of 
his  Regeneration.  That  miracles  only  operate  to  an 
Exterior  Faith  or  Belief,  may  be  seen  from  the  little 
effect  they  had  on  the  people  in  Egypt,  and  the  Children 
of  Israel  in  the  Desert,  when  the  Lord  Jehovah  descend- 

34 


Swedenborg  as  a  Seer 

ed  on  Mount  Sinai  in  their  presence:  and  from  what 
effect  they  had  on  the  Jewish  Nation,  when  they  saw 
all  the  miracles  our  Saviour  performed  before  them; 
for  after  all,  did  they  not  crucify  him  at  last?  So  if  the 
Lord  was  to  appear  now  in  the  sky,  attended  with  Angels 
and  Trumpets,  it  would  have  no  other  effect  than  it 
had  then.  See  Luke  xvi.  29,  30,  31.  The  Signs  that 
will  be  given  at  this  day,  will  be  an  Illumination  of  the 
mind  from  the  flowing  Graces  and  Knowledge  of  the 
Lord,  together  with  the  reception  of  the  Truths  of  the 
New  Church,  which  will  form  the  mind  to  a  just  per- 
ception of  Heavenly  Truth,  that  will  work  more  ef- 
fectually than  any  Miracles. 

"  You  ask  me,  if  I  have  spoke  with  the  Apostles? 
To  which  I  reply,  I  have.  I  have  spoken  at  times,  dur- 
ing the  space  of  one  whole  year  with  Paul,  and  partic- 
ularly of  what  is  mentioned  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
chap.  iii.  28.  I  have  moreover  spoken  three  times  with 
John ;  once  with  Moses ;  and  I  suppose  a  hundred  times 
with  Luther,  who  owned  to  me  that,  contrary  to  the 
advice  and  warning  of  an  Angel,  he  had  received  the 
Doctrine  of  Salvation  by  Faith  alone,  merely  by  itself, 
and  that  with  the  intent  that  he  might  make  an  entire 
separation  from  Popery.  But  with  the  Angelic  Order 
I  have  spoke  and  conversed  for  these  twenty-two  years 
past,  and  daily  continue  to  converse  with  them,  they 
being  sent  of  the  Lord  as  Associates.  There  was  no 
occasion  to  mention  this  in  my  Writings ;  for  had  I  done 
it,  who  would  have  believed  it?  Would  they  not  also 
have  said,  Do  Miracles  first,  and  then  we  will  believe?" 

We  have  English  translations  of  thirty-three 
substantial  octavo  volumes,  consisting  pretty 

35 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

exclusively  of  what  Swedenborg  saw  or  heard  in 
the  spiritual  world  while  either  asleep  or  in  a 
state  of  practically  suspended  consciousness  of 
the  phenomenal  world.  Irrespective  of  the  theo- 
logical doctrines  developed  in  most  of  these  vol- 
umes, it  is  impossible  to  overrate  their  impor- 
tance in  enlightening  us  in  regard  to  what  goes 
on  in  our  states  of  suspended  consciousness,  and 
above  all,  its  conclusiveness  against  any  theory 
of  mental  or  spiritual  inactivity  while  in  that  con- 
dition. 

That  Swedenborg  was  as  credible  a  witness 
of  what  he  believed  he  heard  and  saw  in  the 
spiritual  world  as  either  of  the  prophets  of  the 
old  dispensation  or  apostles  of  the  new,  no  one 
familiar  with  his  life  and  occupations  can  seriously 
doubt.  For  the  edification  of  such  of  my  readers 
as  may  not  have  the  advantage  of  such  familiarity, 
I  take  the  liberty  of  referring  them  to  some  au- 
thorities, to  which  they  will  hardly  hesitate  to 
defer,  so  far  at  least  as  to  recognize  the  extraor- 
dinary activity  of  Swedenborg 's  psychical  nature 
during  the  twenty-eight  later  years  of  his  life, 
for  the  larger  part  of  which  time  he  claimed  to  be 
in  pretty  constant  communication  with  the  spir- 
itual world.* 

The  records  of  these  revelations  are  so  accessible 
that  I  will  not  distend  this  volume  by  any  analysis 
of  them.  To  most  persons  I  think  I  shall  convey 

*  Appendix  A. 
36 


Calvin  in  Hades 

a  sufficiently  definite  general  idea  of  them  for 
my  purpose  in  referring  to  them  here,  by  setting 
forth,  as  I  propose  to  do  in  the  appendix,  Sweden- 
borg's  account  of  interviews  in  the  spiritual  world 
with  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Calvin,  which  I 
venture  to  commend  to  the  attention  of  my  readers.* 
In  connection  with  Swedenborg's  post-obit  view 
of  Calvin  it  may  be  instructive  to  read  a  few  ex- 
tracts from  one  of  the  most  recent  biographies  of 
the  great  solifidian  theologian  :f 

"  While  a  boy  at  school,  intensely  devoted  to  study, 
he  cared  little  for  the  pastimes  in  which  his  fellow-scholars 
indulged,  he  shunned  society  and  was  more  disposed 
to  censure  the  frivolities  of  those  around  him  than  to 
secure  the  solace  of  their  companionship;  severe  to 
others,  he  was  still  more  so  to  himself,  and  his  pale 
face  and  attenuated  frame  bore  witness  at  once  to  the 
rigor  of  his  abstinence  and  the  ardor  with  which  he 
prosecuted  his  studies." 

While  pursuing  the  study  of  law  at  Orleans 
the  same  writer  says  of  him: 

"At  all  times,  indeed,  a  diligent  student,  he  seems 
at  this  time  to  have  been  impelled  by  his  zeal  beyond 
those  bounds  which  a  wise  regard  to  health  would  im- 
pose. It  was  his  wont,  after  a  frugal  supper,  to  labor 
till  midnight,  and  in  the  morning  when  he  awoke  he 
would,  before  he  arose,  recall  and  digest  what  he  had 
read  the  previous  day,  so  as  to  make  it  thoroughly  his 

*  Appendix  B. 

t  W.  Lindsay  Alexander,  D.D.,  one  of  the  Bible  revisers. 

37 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

own.  '  By  these  protracted  vigils/  says  Beza,  '  he 
secured  indeed  a  solid  erudition  and  an  excellent  mem- 
ory; but  it  is  probable  he  at  the  same  time  sowed  the 
seeds  of  that  disease  which  occasioned  him  various 
illnesses  in  after  life  and  at  last  brought  upon  him  pre- 
mature death.'  (He  died  in  his  fifty-fourth  year.)" 

While  settled  over  a  parish  in  Geneva,  where, 
"besides  preaching  every  day  in  each  alternate 
week,  he  taught  theology  three  times  in  the  week, 
attended  weekly  meetings  of  his  consistory,  read 
the  Scriptures  once  a  week  in  the  congregation, 
carried  on  an  extensive  correspondence  upon  a 
multiplicity  of  subjects,  and  was  engaged  re- 
peatedly in  controversy  with  the  opponents  of 
his  opinions,"  he  writes  to  a  friend: 

"  I  have  not  time  to  look  out  of  my  house  at  the  blessed 
sun;  and  if  things  continue  thus  I  shall  forget  what 
sort  of  appearance  it  has.  When  I  have  settled  my 
usual  business  I  have  so  many  letters  to  write,  so  many 
questions  to  answer,  that  many  a  night  is  spent  without 
any  offering  of  sleep  being  brought  to  nature.  .  .  . 

"  The  incessant  and  exhausting  labors  to  which 
Calvin  gave  himself  could  not  but  tell  on  the  strongest 
constitution:  how  much  more  on  one  so  fragile  as  his. 
Amid  many  sufferings,  however,  and  frequent  attacks 
of  sickness,  he  manfully  pursued  his  course  for  twenty- 
eight  years ;  nor  was  it  till  his  frail  body,  torn  by  many 
and  painful  diseases  —  fever,  asthma,  stone,  and  gout 
— the  fruits,  for  the  most  part,  of  his  sedentary  habits 
and  unceasing  activity — had,  as  it  were,  fallen  to  pieces 
around  him  —  that  his  indomitable  spirit  relinquished 

38 


Calvin  in  Hades 

the  conflict.  .  .  .  After  he  had  retired  from  public 
labors  he  lingered  for  some  months  enduring  the  sever- 
est agony  without  a  murmur  and  cheerfully  attending 
to  all  the  duties  of  a  private  kind  which  his  disease  left 
him  strength  to  discharge." 

How  different  might  have  been  the  history  of 
Protestantism  in  the  world  had  Calvin  given  as 
many  hours  to  sleep  as  he  did  to  professional 
work,  is  a  problem  upon  which  some  reflection 
would  not  be  wasted  by  any  of  us. 


CHAPTER   IV 

Most  conspicuous  changes  wrought  during  sleep  psy- 
chical, not  physical — Seclusion  from  the  world  most  per- 
fect in  sleep  —  Why  the  aged  sleep  less  than  others — 
Mysterious  effects  of  sleep  upon  the  demands  of  our 
appetites — Our  greater  endurance  while  sleeping  than 
when  awake — The  need  for  sleep  diminishes  as  the 
organization  of  our  lives  becomes  more  complex — 
Buffon — ^Esculapius — Letter  of  lamblichus — Moham- 
med— Cicero's  dream. 


OF  the  changes  which  distinguish  our  con- 
dition in  the  morning  from  our  condition  in  the 
evening,  the  most  conspicuous  are  not  physical, 
but  psychical.  The  moral  side  of  our  being  seems 
for  the  time  to  have  been  in  the  ascendant.  Hav- 
ing ceased  for  some  hours  to  be  preoccupied  with 
what  is  purely  personal,  narrow,  and  narrowing, 
the  world's  hold  upon  our  thoughts  and  affections 
having  been  temporarily  broken,  we  seem  to  have 
been  at  liberty  for  a  time  to  realize  that  we  are  a 
substantive  part  of  the  universal  life;  to  feel  the 
spirit  of  the  ages  of  which  we  are  a  product;  to 
look  up  from  nature  to  nature's  God,  its  author, 
and  to  his  great  world  as  a  manifestation  of  Him 
rather  than  a  product  of  human  ingenuity  and 

40 


How  the  World  is  Overcome 

pretension;   all  this  undisturbed  by  the  calcula- 
tions and  ambitions  of  our  day-lit  life. 

It  was  thus  "to  overcome  the  world/'  or  at 
least  to  assist  us  in  it,  that  the  Mosaic  law  set 
apart  one  day  in  seven  for  our  spiritual  refection, 
and  enjoined  upon  us  to  do  no  manner  of  work. 
It  was  for  the  like  purpose  we  were  directed,  when 
we  pray,  to  enter  into  our  inner  chamber  and 
shut  our  door,  that  we  be  not  distracted  by  what 
the  world  may  think  or  say  or  be  to  us  while  we 
commune  with  our  Father  in  heaven.  May  we 
not — do  we  not  have  a  more  perfect  seclusion  from 
the  world  in  our  sleep,  to  help  us  to  such  a  direct, 
prolonged,  and  undisturbed  communion  than  is 
possible  at  any  other  time?  Is  it  not  necessary 
for  all  of  us,  or  at  least  for  much  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  world  who  otherwise  might  never 
seek  this  closer  communion  with  God,  to  be  sub- 
jected to  the  operation  of  a  law  which  for  a  portion 
of  every  day  reduces  them  to  a  condition  in  which 
nothing  operates  to  prevent  their  giving  their  at- 
tention to  the  divine  messengers  that  are  contin- 
ually struggling  for  an  opportunity  to  be  heard? 
This  idea  appears  to  have  been  the  happy  in- 
spiration of  one  of  our  as  yet  unpublished  poets 
in  the  following  sonnet : 

"  If  thou  wouldst  look  life's  problem  in  the  face, 
And  comprehend  her  mystic  countenance, 
Seek,  in  the  early  morn,  ere  yet  the  grace 
Of  dewdrops  has  been  withered  by  the  sun, 

41 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Some  solitary  glen  or  truant  brook, 

And  scan,  freed  from  results  of  yesterday, 

The  ill-deciphered  pages  of  life's  book: 

And  ere  to-day's  vicissitudes  have  cast 

Their  shadows  o'er  the  judgment,  thou  shalt  see 

Thy  blessings  will  confront  thee  then,  and  ask 

A  recognizing  smile.     The  world  shall  seem 

A  higher  fact, — the  heart  of  man,  more  wise, 

The  very  universe  on  larger  plan, — 

The  glamour  of  day-dawn  within  thine  eyes."* 

The  changes  wrought  in  us  while  sleeping,  as 
a  rule,  vary  according  to  the  amount  of  sleep  we 
require,  and  that  varies  with  our  age.  In  our 
childhood  we  require  far  more  sleep  than  at  later 
periods  of  life,  and  the  younger  we  are,  the  more 
we  need.  Infants,  in  whom  we  are  able  to  discern 
few,  if  any,  traces  of  a  moral  sense,  sleep  most 
of  the  time.  It  is  during  this  period,  before  their 
rationality  is  developed,  and  before  they  come 
under  the  influence  of  the  world  and  its  tempta- 
tions, which  are  so  necessary  to  our  spiritual 
growth  later  in  life — in  other  words,  before  the 
moral  sense  can  be  successfully  appealed  to,  that 
the  seed  is  planted  by  parental  love,  which  is 
destined  to  grow  and  shelter  them  from  those 
temptations  when  they  shall  assail.  The  longer 
hours  which  infancy  requires  for  sleep  are  pro- 
portioned to  their  greater  spiritual  needs.  An 
infant  would  perish  in  a  few  hours  if  allowed  no 
more  sleep  than  would  suffice  for  an  adult. 
*  Mrs.  J.  Kennedjr  Potter. 
42 


Needs  of  Sleep  as  Affected  by  Age 

Old  people,  whose  ties  to  the  world  not  already 
severed  are  daily  weakening,  spend  fewer  hours 
in  sleep,  as  a  rule,  than  the  younger  of  any  age. 

Why  these  discriminations  of  nature  between 
the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  infant?  It  is 
not  casual,  but  uniform  and  universal.  Did 
fatigue  create  a  need  for  repose,  why  should  the 
octogenarian,  trembling  with  weakness,  sleep 
least?  Why  should  the  infant,  who  does  nothing 
to  induce  fatigue,  and  doubles  its  weight  out  of 
its  overflowing  abundance  of  life,  in  a  few  months, 
sleep  many  times  as  much  as  its  grandparents? 
Obviously  because  we  tend  to  become  less  active 
and  more  contemplative  in  our  declining  years. 
The  world  has  been  gradually  losing  its  charm, 
its  former  allurements  cease  to  distract;  the  mind 
feeds  upon  the  spiritual  experiences  of  a  long 
life,  less  disturbed  than  during  our  earlier  years 
by  the  temptations  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil.  They  therefore  may  be  presumed  to 
need  less  sleep  or  to  be  in  a  spiritual  condition  to 
profit  less  for  any  moral  purpose  by  sleep  than 
either  the  stalwart  adult  or  the  puling  infant. 
In  the  inspired  language  of  the  poet  Waller, 

"  The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 
Lets  in  the  light  through  chinks  that  Time  has  made." 

Following  this  line  of  thought,  we  should  pause 
to  take  note  of  the  fact  that  one  by  one  the  several 
senses  by  which  we  hold  communion  with  the 
visible  world  cease  to  render  their  wonted  service 

43 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

as  we  advance  into  the  autumn  of  life.  The 
eyes,  to  use  Milton's  expression,  "their  seeing 
have  forgot,"  the  ears  their  hearing,  the  skin  its 
sensibility,  and  so  on.  Why,  except  that  the 
messages  which  it  is  the  function  of  the  senses 
to  bring  to  us  from  the  external  world  are  be- 
coming less  needful  to  us  or  more  hurtful,  or  that 
the  interruption  of  those  messages  is  required 
to  supplement  the  educational  offices  for  which 
the  hours  of  sleep,  usual  at  that  age,  were  in- 
adequate? With  some  the  senses  are  dulled 
earlier  than  with  others.  May  not  this  impair- 
ment of  sensibility  reflect  a  corresponding  spirit- 
ual or  moral  condition?  Of  course,  this  impair- 
ment is  a  result,  not  a  final  cause  or  purpose.  Of 
what  is  it  so  likely  to  be  the  result  as  of  a  divine 
purpose,  similar  to  that  we  are  ascribing  to  sleep, 
of  diminishing  or  checking  the  interference  of  the 
phenomenal  world  with  our  spiritual  growth,  and 
an  aid  to  us  in  overcoming  the  world,  or,  rather, 
our  sense  of  our  personal  importance  to  the  world? 

Rest  implies  inactivity,  a  suspension  of  effort 
and  exertion,  the  substitution  of  idleness  for 
labor.  If,  therefore,  all  our  nobler  faculties  have 
been  resting  during  the  night,  have  been  doing 
nothing,  by  the  operation  of  what  force  or  by 
what  necromancy  are  we  so  transfigured  in  the 
morning? 

The  effect  of  sleep  upon  the  demands  of  our 
stomach  is  also  mysterious.  Few  people  take 
less  than  three  meals  daily,  if  they  can  help  it, 

44 


Nature  an  Inexorable  Creditor 

yet  a  man  may  sleep  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hours 
— cases  are  recorded  of  persons  sleeping  much 
longer — without  waking,  and  of  course  without 
taking  any  nourishment  whatsoever. 

Wraxall,  in  his  Memoirs,  tells  us  that  William 
Pitt,  the  most  eminent  minister  of  George  III. 
of  England,  having  been  much  disturbed  by  a 
variety  of  painful  political  occurrences,  "drove 
out  to  pass  the  night  with  Dundas  at  Wimbledon. 
After  supper  the  minister  withdrew  to  his  cham- 
ber, having  given  his  servant  directions  to  call 
him  at  seven  on  the  ensuing  morning.  No  sooner 
had  Pitt  retired  than  Dundas,  conscious  how  much 
the  minister  stood  in  need  of  repose,  repaired  to  his 
apartment,  locked  the  door,  and  put  the  key  in 
his  pocket,  at  the  same  time  enjoining  the  valet 
on  no  consideration  to  disturb  his  master,  but 
to  allow  him  to  sleep  as  long  as  nature  required. 
It  is  a  truth  that  Pitt  neither  awoke  nor  called 
any  person  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  following  day,  when  Dundas,  entering  his 
room  together  with  his  servant,  found  him  still 
in  so  deep  a  sleep  that  it  became  necessary  to 
shake  in  order  to  awaken  him.  He  had  slept 
uninterruptedly  during  more  than  sixteen  hours." 

Such  long  naps,  we  fancy,  are  by  no  means 
uncommon,  but  are  not  heard  of — like  the  heroes 
before  Agamemnon — carent  quia  vote  sacro. 

It  is  reported  of  Lord  Brougham  that  when 
he  returned  home  after  his  brilliant  and  exhaust- 
ing defence  of  Queen  Caroline  he  went  at  once  to 

45 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

bed,  with  orders  not  to  be  disturbed,  however  long 
he  might  sleep  —  orders  which  his  household 
obeyed,  though  with  astonishment  deepening  into 
something  like  terror  as  the  young  lawyer's  nap 
prolonged  itself  for  nearly  eight-and-forty  hours. 
His  physician  afterwards  declared  that  this  sleep 
had  saved  him  from  brain  fever,  though  prob- 
ably only  the  marvellously  recuperative  powers 
which  he  possessed  enabled  him  to  take  nature's 
remedy  in  one  such  mighty  dose. 

Yet  all  this  time  the  digestion  and  other  func- 
tions of  the  body  have  been  going  on  very  much 
as  they  are  wont  during  the  waking  hours.  It 
thus  appears  that  we  require  nourishment  three 
or  four  times  more  frequently  while  awake  than 
while  sleeping.  Yet — and  here  is  another  sur- 
prise— we  usually  awake  in  the  morning  without 
either  hunger  or  faintness,  one  or  the  other  of 
which  always  accompanies  an  unusually  long 
fast  when  awake.  The  first  and  morning  meal 
is  ordinarily  the  lightest  of  the  day  among  people 
who  are  free  to  consult  their  tastes  about  their 
hours  for  eating.  How  shall  we  explain  this 
strange  discrepancy  in  the  actions  of  the  stomach 
in  the  daytime  and  at  night?  It  is  no  answer 
to  say  that  we  work  in  the  daytime,  hence  waste 
and  hunger;  for  the  same  necessity  for  frequent 
nourishment  during  the  day  is  as  surely  experi- 
enced by  a  person  taking  little  or  no  physical 
exercise  as  by  the  bricklayer  or  the  wood-sawyer. 
Obviously  a  condition  of  things  has  been  super- 

46 


Sleeper's  Insensibility  to  Pain 

induced  by  sleep  which  involves  not  only  a  dis- 
continuance of  intercourse  with  the  phenomenal 
world,  but  a  suspension  of  some  of  its  sternest 
exactions. 

There  is  another  extraordinary  result  of  sleep 
which,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  never  been  remarked 
upon,  but  which  accredits,  if  it  does  not  explain, 
some  of  the  stories  related  in  the  Bible  which 
put  our  faith  in  the  divine  origin  of  that  record 
to  the  severest  test. 

When  one  lays  himself  down  upon  his  bed  or 
couch,  however  tired,  if  awake,  he  rarely  remains 
long  in  any  one  position.  At  frequent  intervals 
he  feels  an  impulse  to  turn  over  or  move  some 
of  his  limbs,  or  otherwise  relieve  himself  from 
what  has  become  an  uncomfortable  position. 

If  he  falls  asleep,  however,  though  he  has  the 
ground  for  a  bed  and  a  log  or  even  a  stone  for  a 
pillow,  he  may  lie  quietly  for  many  hours  with- 
out the  slightest  motion  of  any  kind  save  that 
incident  to  involuntary  respiration.  Nor,  when 
he  awakes,  will  he  experience  any  discomfort 
in  any  part  of  his  body,  not  even  in  that  which 
has  sustained  the  most  pressure  —  a  pressure 
which  while  awake  he  would  not  contentedly 
have  quietly  endured  for  five  minutes. 

Whence  this  difference?  There  is  no  change 
in  the  physical  condition  of  the  sleeper  that  will 
account  for  it.  His  body  weighs  no  less,  the 
blood  circulates  as  freely  in  the  veins,  and  when 
he  awakes,  as  a  rule,  he  not  only  may  have  no 

47 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sense  of  pain  or  discomfort  anywhere,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  feel  refreshed  at  every  point.  What 
has  occasioned  this  mysterious  change  in  the 
relations  of  causes  and  effects  on  a  sleeping  from 
those  operations  on  a  waking  man? 

We  are  told  that  Jacob,  the  son  of  Isaac  and 
grandson  of  Abraham,  on  his  journey  towards 
Padan  Aram  in  quest  of  a  wife,  "  lighted  upon  a 
certain  place  and  tarried  there  all  night,  because 
the  sun  was  set."  (We  are  not  told  that  he  was 
even  tired.)  "And  he  took  one  of  the  stones 
of  the  place  and  put  it  under  his  head  and  lay 
down  in  that  place  to  sleep."  In  his  sleep  the 
young  man  had  dreams  of  an  inconceivably  glo- 
rious future.  When  he  awoke  he  exclaimed: 
"Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this  place  and  I  knew  it 
not;  this  is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God 
and  the  gate  of  heaven."  He  rose,  took  the  stone 
that  he  had  put  under  his  head  and  set  it  up  for 
a  pillar  and  poured  oil  upon  it.  And  he  called 
the  name  of  that  place  Bethel. 

What  change  did  sleep  work  in  Jacob  during 
that  night,  with  a  stone  for  his  pillow,  that  he 
should  set  that  stone  up  for  a  monument  and 
pour  oil  upon  the  top  of  it  and  finally  make  of  it 
the  dwelling-place  of  his  God? 

The  reason  assigned  in  the  sacred  record  is 
that  during  his  sleep  he  "  beheld  a  ladder  set  upon 
the  earth  and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven, 
and  he  beheld  angels,  the  messengers  from  God, 
ascending  and  descending  on  it,  and  the  Lord 


Jacob's  Pillow 

standing  above  it,  who,  besides  promising  that 
Jacob's  seed  should  be  as  the  dust  of  the  earth 
for  multitude,  and  that  in  his  seed  should  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed,  added,  "Be- 
hold I  am  with  thee  and  will  keep  thee  whither- 
soever thou  goest,  and  will  bring  thee  again  unto 
this  land;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee  until  I  have 
done  that  which  I  have  spoken  to  thee  of." 

No  one  will  pretend  that  a  communication  of 
such  incalculable  importance  would  ever  be  made 
by  any  one,  least  of  all  by  the  God  of  gods,  to 
one  whose  mind  was,  like  his  body,  in  a  deep 
sleep.  Is  it  not  equally  clear  that  the  peculiar 
time  for  making  it  was  selected  because  in  his 
waking  hours  Jacob  would  not  have  been  in  a 
condition  to  receive  it? 

Who  shall  say  that  such  ladders  are  or  have 
ever  been  uncommon  means  of  communication 
between  the  inhabitants  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  and  that  angels  are  not  frequently  ascend- 
ing and  descending  them  with  heavenly  messages 
to  unconscious  sleepers? 

As  we  descend  in  the  scale  of  organized  life, 
the  proportion  of  time  spent  in  sleep  seems  to 
increase  until  we  reach  a  point  where  life  is  ap- 
parently a  continuous  sleep.  "An  oyster,"  says 
Buffon,  "  which  does  not  seem  to  have  any  sensi- 
ble exterior  movement  nor  external  sense,  is  a 
creature  formed  to  sleep  always.  A  vegetable 
is  in  this  sense  but  an  animal  that  sleeps,  and, 
in  general,  the  functions  of  every  organized  being 
4  49 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

lacking  power  of  movement  and  the  senses  may 
be  compared  to  the  functions  of  an  animal  who 
should  be  constrained  by  nature  to  sleep  con- 
tinually. 

"In  the  animal  the  state  of  sleep  is  not  an  ac- 
cidental one,  occasioned  by  the  greater  or  less 
exercise  of  its  faculties  while  awake;  it  is,  on  the 
contrary,  an  essential  mode  of  being,  which  serves 
as  the  base  of  all  animal  economy.  Our  exist- 
ence begins  in  sleep;  the  foetus  sleeps  almost 
continually,  and  the  infant  sleeps  more  hours 
than  it  is  awake. 

"Sleep,  which  appears  to  be  a  purely  passive 
state,  a  species  of  death,  is,  on  the  contrary,  the 
first  state  of  the  living  animal  and  the  foundation 
of  life.  It  is  not  a  privation,  an  annihilation; 
it  is  a  mode  of  being,  a  style  of  existence  as  real 
and  more  general  than  any  other.  We  exist  in 
this  state  before  existing  in  any  other;  all  or- 
ganized beings  which  have  not  the  senses  exist 
in  this  state  only,  while  none  exist  in  a  state  of 
continual  movement,  and  all  existences  partici- 
pate more  or  less  in  this  state  of  repose/'* 

As  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  organized  life,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  find  that  the  time  required  for 
sleep  diminishes,  and  the  quality  of  life  exhibits 
a  corresponding  increase  of  complexity,  and  a  cor- 
responding enlargement  of  function,  until  we  reach 
the  highest  of  organizations,  our  own  species. 

* "  Discours^  sur  la  Nature  des  Animaux."  CEuvres 
de  Buffon.  Edition  Flourens,  vol.  ii.  p.  331. 

50 


Sleep  only  Known  by  its  Coming  and  Leaving 

At  the  close  of  a  laborious  day  we  invariably, 
if  in  health,  feel  a  languor  which  prompts  us  to 
take  a  position  in  which  the  weight  of  our  bodies 
will  be  so  distributed  as  to  invite  sleep — for  which, 
if  in  health,  we  do  not  have  to  wait  long.  The 
interval  between  its  arrival  and  our  laying  our- 
selves in  a  recumbent  position  is  usually  one  of 
exquisite  pleasure. 

All  our  impressions  of  sleep  are  formed  before 
it  arrives  and  after  it  begins  to  leave.  We  en- 
joy what  we  call  going  to  sleep,  and  we  enjoy 
the  feelings  we  experience  after  we  have  slept, 
but  during  sleep  we  have  no  consciousness  of 
any  sensation  which  we  have  any  right  to  at- 
tribute directly  and  exclusively  to  it,  or  of  which 
our  senses  can  take  cognizance.  While  it  is 
thus  made  pleasant  for  us  to  close  our  eyes  and 
relax  our  hold  upon  the  world  for  a  portion  of 
every  twenty-four  hours,  we  have  no  more  right 
to  infer  that  it  is  merely  that  we  may  remain  in  a 
pleasing  state  of  inactivity  and  insensibility  than 
we  have  to  infer  that  the  final  purpose  of  hunger  is 
to  secure  us  the  gratifications  of  the  palate,  or  the 
final  purpose  of  sexual  attraction  is  merely  to 
gratify  our  sensuality.  As  in  both  these  cases, 
the  ends  to  be  reached  are  of  the  most  far-reaching 
character,  and  the  desires  are  given  that  the  means 
for  the  accomplishment  of  those  ends  should  not 
be  neglected,  so  our  diurnal  desire  for  sleep  is 
manifestly  designed  to  promote  in  us  the  growth 
and  development  of  spiritual  graces  in  some  way, 

51 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

for  which  the  waking  hours  are  less  propitious. 
Our  Maker  could  have  had  no  other  design  in 
our  creation;  He  can  have  no  other  design  in 
the  perpetuation  of  our  race.  Why  should  In- 
finite Wisdom  have  assigned  a  less  important 
function  for  the  very  considerable  portion  of  our 
lives  during  which  our  consciousness  is  suspended 
in  sleep  than  to  the  function  of  hunger  or  lust? 
Why  should  we  resist  the  obvious  implication 
that  in  falling  asleep  we  are  being  gradually 
separated  from  the  world  of  the  senses,  and,  as 
they  seem  to  recede,  that  something  flows  into 
us  which  yields  a  pleasure  that  grows  more  un- 
mixed and  absolute  until  consciousness  of  our 
external  and  natural  life  altogether  ceases? 

"  As  angels  in  some  brighter  dreams 
Call  to  the  soul  when  man  doth  sleep; 
So  some  strange  thoughts  transcend  our  wonted  themes 
And  into  glory  peep." 

Pausanias,  in  his  historic  tour  in  Greece,  de- 
scribes a  temple  erected  in.  honor  of  ^)sculapius, 
in  the  court  of  which  he  found  the  figure  of  Oneiros, 
the  god  of  dreams,  and  beside  it  another  of  Hypnos, 
or  Sleep,  putting  a  lion  to  sleep.  To  this  latter 
figure,  says  Pausanias,  they  had  given  the  name 
of  Epidotes,  or  the  Giver.* 

"  So  He  giveth  his  beloved  in  their  sleep. " 

*  From  the  Greek  word  imSiSufu,  to  increase,  to  fatten,  to 
give  freely,  to  give  as  a  benevolence. 

52 


lamblichus 

From  the  writings  of  lamblichus,  at  one  time 
the  head  of  the  school  of  Neo-Platonists,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  view  here  taken  of  sleep,  as  having 
a  higher  function  than  simply  the  reparation  of 
waste,  was  shared  some  fifteen  centuries  ago  by 
thoughtful  men,  who  did  not  claim  to  speak  by 
divine  inspiration.  In  a  letter  compiled  from  his 
writings,  and  quoted  by  R.  A.  Vaughan  in  his 
Hours  with  the  Mystics,  he  says: 

"  There  is  nothing  unworthy  of  belief  in  what  you 
have  been  told  concerning  the  sacred  sleep  and  divina- 
tion by  dreams.  I  explain  it  thus : 

"  The  soul  has  a  twofold  life,  a  lower  and  a  higher. 
In  sleep  the  soul  is  freed  from  the  constraint  of  the  body, 
and  enters,  as  one  emancipated,  on  its  divine  life  of 
intelligence.  Then,  as  the  noble  faculty  which  beholds 
the  objects  that  truly  are  the  objects  in  the  world  of  in- 
telligence stirs  within  and  awakens  to  its  power,  who 
can  be  surprised  that  the  mind,  which  contains  in  itself 
the  principles  of  all  that  happens,  should,  in  this,  the 
state  of  liberation,  discern  the  future  in  those  antece- 
dent principles  which  will  make  that  future  what  it  is 
to  be?  The  nobler  part  of  the  soul  is  thus  united  by  ab- 
straction to  higher  natures,  and  becomes  a  participant 
in  the  wisdom  and  foreknowledge  of  the  gods. 

"  Recorded  examples  of  this  are  numerous  and  well 
authenticated ;  instances  occur,  too,  every  day.  Num- 
bers of  sick,  by  sleeping  in  the  temple  of  ^Esculapius, 
have  had  their  cure  revealed  to  them  in  dreams  vouch- 
safed by  the  god.  Would  not  Alexander's  army  have 
perished  but  for  a  dream,  in  which  Dionysius  pointed 
out  the  means  of  safety?  Was  not  the  siege  of  Aphritis 

53  \ 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

raised  through  a  dream  sent  by  Jupiter  Ammon  to 
Lysander?  The  night-time  of  the  body  is  the  daytime 
of  the  soul." 

Tradition  accounts  for  Mohammed's  being 
among  the  prophets  in  this  wise:  While  in- 
dulging in  spiritual  meditations  and  repeating 
pious  exercises  on  Mount  Hira  in  the  month  of 
Ramedan,  the  Angel  Gabriel  came  to  him  by 
night,  as  he  was  sleeping,  held  a  silken  scroll  be- 
fore him,  and  required  him,  though  not  knowing 
how  to  read,  to  recite  what  was  written  on  the 
scroll.  The  words  thus  communicated  remained 
graven  on  his  memory,  and  ran  as  follows: 

"  Read!  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  who  created  man 
from  a  drop.  Read!  For  the  Lord  is  the  Most  High, 
who  hath  taught  by  the  pen  to  man  what  he  knew  not. 
Nay  truly,  man  walketh  in  delusion  when  he  deems 
that  he  suffices  for  himself.  To  thy  Lord  they  must 
all  return." 

This  brief  announcement  of  the  Angel  Gabriel 
to  Mohammed  in  his  sleep  deserves  to  be  regarded 
as  the  corner  -  stone  of  the  religion  of  the  most 
numerous  of  the  monotheistic  sects  in  the  world 
to  this  day — a  religion  which  Napoleon  I.  char- 
acteristically pronounced  superior  to  Christianity 
in  that  it  conquered  half  the  world  in  ten  years, 
while  Christianity  took  three  hundred  years  to 
establish  itself. 

Cicero  tells  us  of  a  dream  he  had  of  a  singular- 
ly prophetic  character  which  occurred  to  him  in 

54 


Cicero's  Dream 

one  of  the  stages  of  his  flight  after  his  banish- 
ment from  Rome.  He  is  certainly  a  good  witness, 
and  his  dream  cannot  easily  be  reconciled  with 
the  popular  notion  of  mental  and  moral  inactivity 
during  sleep. 

Being  lodged  in  the  villa  of  a  friend,  after  he 
had  lain  restless  and  wakeful  a  great  part  of  the 
night,  he  fell  into  a  sound  sleep  near  break  of 
day,  and  when  he  waked,  about  eight  in  the  morn- 
ing, told  his  dream  to  those  round  him :  That  as 
he  seemed  to  be  wandering  disconsolate  in  a  lone- 
ly place,  Caius  Marius,  with  his  fasces  wreathed 
with  laurel,  accosted  him,  and  demanded  why 
he  was  so  melancholy;  and  when  he  answered 
that  he  was  driven  out  of  his  country  by  violence, 
Marius  took  him  by  the  hand,  and,  bidding  him 
be  of  courage,  ordered  the  next  lictor  to  conduct 
him  into  his  monument,  telling  him  that  there 
he  should  find  safety.  Upon  this  the  company 
presently  cried  out  that  he  would  have  a  quick 
and  glorious  return.  All  of  which  was  exactly 
fulfilled;  for  his  restoration  was  decreed  in  a  cer- 
tain temple  built  by  Marius,  and,  for  that  reason, 
called  Marius's  Monument,  where  the  Senate  hap- 
pened to  be  assembled  on  that  occasion. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  most  important  events  in  human  history  initiated 
during  sleep  —  Altruism  first  taught  in  sleep  —  Ex- 
traordinary spiritual  uses  of  sleep  recorded  in  the 
Bible.  

THE  most  considerable  and  imposing  repository 
of  facts  from  which  we  are  authorized  to  infer 
anything  of  what  may  be  going  on  in  us  while 
we  sleep  may  be  found  where,  ordinarily,  one 
would  be  least  likely  to  look  for  it,  and  if  sleep 
be,  as  most  people  suppose,  simply  an  interruption 
of  activities  for  the  purpose  of  repose  and  refresh- 
ment, where  it  would  be  most  out  of  place — that 
is,  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  If  these  writings 
are  what  they  purport  to  be — an  inspired  guide 
to  assist  man  in  leading  a  holy  life — it  is  im- 
possible to  reconcile  the  prominence  they  give 
to  the  phenomena  of  sleep  with  the  idea  of  its 
being  merely  a  mode  of  rest  from  fatigue. 

Even  a  hasty  reference  to  its  pages  will  satis- 
fy the  reader  that  sleep  is  rarely  referred  to  in 
the  Bible  except  with  reference  to  some  of  the 
most  vital  processes  of  spiritual  growth  or  de- 
generation. In  reading  the  illustrations  of  this 
statement,  to  some  of  which  I  will  now  refer,  the 

56 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

reader  is  requested  to  note  the  incalculably  im- 
portant consequences  of  which,  in  each  case, 
sleep  is  the  prelude. 

In  the  Bible  the  very  first  allusion  to  sleep 
associates  it  with  an  event  second  in  importance, 
perhaps,  to  no  other  in  the  history  of  our  race: 

"  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon 
the  Man,  and  he  slept ;  and  he  took  one  of  bis  ribs,  and 
closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof :  and  the  rib,  which 
the  Lord  God  had  taken  from  the  man,  made  he  a 
woman,  and  brought  her  unto  the  man.  And  the  man 
said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bone,  and  flesh  of  my 
flesh:  she  shall  be  called  Woman,  because  she  was 
taken  out  of  man.  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his 
father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife: 
and  they  shall  be  one  ftesh."* 

Thus  it  was  during  his  sleep  that  man  was 
first  qualified  to  love  something  outside  of  him- 
self, that  our  race  received  its  first  lesson  in 
altruism;  experienced  its  first  triumph  over  the 
tyranny  of  its  selfhood,  and  that  the  institution 
of  matrimony  was  established.  His  Eve  is  man's 
first  unselfish  love — his  first  genuine  charity. 

Whether  regarded  as  literal  or  symbolical,  the 
passage  quoted  is  no  less  impressive  and  signif- 
icant. 

It  was  when  the  sun  was  going  down  and  a 
deep  sleep  fell  upon  Abram,  that  the  Lord  made 
him  the  founder  of  nations;  commissioned  him 

*  Genesis  ii.  21. 

57 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

to  teach  to  a  pagan  world  the  unity  of  the  God- 
head and  the  errors  of  polytheism.* 

It  was  when  Jacob  was  sent  to  his  grandfather 
to  seek  a  wife  among  the  daughters  of  his  uncle 
Laban  that  he  had  the  dream  already  referred  to, 
when  he  beheld  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth  and 
reaching  to  heaven,  on  which  the  angels  of  God 
were  ascending  and  descending,  and  when  he 
was  promised  that  his  seed  should  be  as  the  dust 
of  the  earth  and  in  it  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
should  be  blessed. 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  and  dramatic  stories 
in  all  literature  is  that  of  Jacob's  son,  Joseph, 
and  his  brethren,  the  machinery  of  which  con- 
sists mainly  of  dreams.  It  was  the  recital  of 
one  of  his  dreams  that  provoked  his  brethren  to 
sell  him  into  Egypt.  While  in  prison,  in  con- 
sequence of  a  malicious  accusation  of  his  master's 
wife,  he  interprets  correctly  the  dreams  of  the 
king's  chief  butler  and  chief  baker,  who  were  his 
fellow-prisoners.  The  fame  of  this  achievement 
spread  through  the  land,  and  when  Pharaoh, 
the  king,  was  himself  perplexed  by  a  dream,  he 
sent  for  Joseph,  and  was  so  impressed  with  his 
skill  in  interpreting  it  that  he  at  once  gave  him 
power  second  only  to  his  own  in  the  kingdom; 
made  him  lord  of  all  his  house,  and  ruler  over 
all  the  land  of  Egypt.  It  was  thus  through  dreams 
that  he  was  enabled  to  save  his  brethren  "alive 

*  Genesis  xv.  12. 
58 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

by  a  great  deliverance,"  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  escape  of  the  children  of  Israel  from  the  bond- 
age of  spiritual  darkness  in  Egypt,  to  wander 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  that  they  might 
be  fitted  for  a  home  in  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  and  symbolize  for  all  future  time  the 
several  stages  of  man's  spiritual  regeneration. 

When  Miriam  and  Aaron  railed  against  Moses 
for  marrying  a  Cushite  woman  and  said,  "  Hath 
the  Lord  spoken  only  with  Moses;  hath  he  not 
spoken  also  with  us?"  the  Lord  came  down  in 
a  pillar  of  cloud,  called  Miriam  and  Aaron  before 
Him,  and  said:  "If  there  be  a  prophet  among 
you,  I,  the  Lord,  will  make  myself  known  unto 
him  in  a  vision;  I  will  speak  with  him  in  a  dream. 
My  servant  Moses  is  not  such;  he  is  faithful  in 
all  mine  house;  with  him  will  I  speak,  mouth  to 
mouth,  even  manifestly  and  not  in  dark  speeches ; 
and  the  form  of  the  Lord  shall  he  behold;  where- 
fore then  were  ye  not  afraid  to  speak  against  my 
servant,  against  Moses?"* 

Samuel  was  laid  down  to  sleep  in  the  temple 
of  the  Lord  where  the  ark  of  God  was  when  the 
Lord  called  him  by  name.  "Now  Samuel  did 
not  yet  know  the  Lord,  neither  was  the  word  of 
the  Lord  yet  revealed  to  him."  The  Lord  called 
him  three  times  before  he  knew  who  it  was  that 
called,  and  then  only  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
high-priest  he  answered,  "  Speak,  for  thy  servant 

*  Numbers  xii.  2-8. 
59 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

heareth.  The  Lord  then  said  to  Samuel,  Behold 
I  will  do  a  thing  in  Israel  at  which  both  the  ears 
of  every  one  that  heareth  it  shall  tingle."  At  the 
close  of  the  Lord's  statement  of  what  He  proposed 
to  do,  it  is  recorded  that  "  Samuel  grew,  and  the 
Lord  was  with  him,  and  did  let  none  of  his  words 
fall  to  the  ground."*  "  And  all  Israel  from  Dan 
even  to  Beersheba  knew  that  Samuel  was  estab- 
lished to  be  a  prophet  of  the  Lord."f 

Saul  was  asleep  in  his  camp  when  Abishai 
said  to  David,  whom  Saul  was  pursuing:  "God 
hath  delivered  up  thine  enemy  into  thine  hand 
this  day :  now  therefore  let  me  smite  him,  I  pray 
thee,  with  the  spear  to  the  earth  at  one  stroke, 
and  I  will  not  smite  him  the  second  time."  David 
replied,  "  The  Lord  forbid  that  I  should  put  forth 
mine  hand  against  the  Lord's  anointed." 

When  Saul  awoke  on  hearing  the  voice  of  David 
from  a  neighboring  hill,  whither  he  had  taken 
refuge,  reproaching  Abner  for  not  having  kept 
better  watch  over  the  Lord's  anointed,  he  said: 
"  I  have  sinned :  return,  my  son  David :  for  I  will 
no  more  do  thee  harm,  because  my  life  was 
precious  in  thine  eyes  this  day:  behold,  I  have 
played  the  fool,  and  have  erred  exceedingly.  .  .  . 
Blessed  be  thou,  my  son  David:  thou  shalt  both 
do  mightily,  and  shalt  surely  prevail.  "J 

To  King  Solomon  is  attributed  the  memorable 
I2jth  Psalm,  in  which  occur  the  following  lines: 

*  I  Samuel  iii.  19.        t  H>-  "i-  20.        J  76.  xxvi.  21,  25. 
60 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

"  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
They  labor  in  vain  that  build  it: 
Except  the  Lord  keep  the  city, 
The  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain. 
It  is  vain  for  you  that  ye  rise  up  early,  and  so  late 

take  rest, 

And  eat  the  bread  of  toil: 
For  so  he  giveth  unto  his  beloved  in  their  sleep." 

Among  the  proverbs  of  the  same  king,  the 
most  famous  of  all  earthly  kings  for  his  wisdom, 
"  sweet  sleep  "  is  held  forth  as  one  of  the  privileges 
of  him  who  despiseth  not  "  the  chastenings  of 
the  Lord"  nor  is  "weary  of  his  reproof."  * 

While  Daniel  and  his  three  comrades  were 
living  at  the  court  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  "  God  gave 
them  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and 
wisdom:  and  Daniel  had  understanding  in  all 
visions  and  dreams." 

When  two  years  later  Nebuchadnezzar  had  a 
dream  which  he  had  forgotten,  he  issued  a  decree 
for  the  slaughter  of  all  his  wise  men  and  magi- 
cians, because  they  could  not  make  known  to 
him  the  dream  and  its  interpretation.  Daniel 
saved  their  lives  and  his  own  by  revealing  to  the 
king  "  the  visions  of  his  head  upon  his  bed," 
and  their  interpretation.  One  of  the  memorable 
results  of  this  dream  was  that  Nebuchadnezzar 
at  last  confessed  to  Daniel  that  his  God  was  the 
God  of  gods  and  the  Lord  of  kings,  and  he  made 

*  Proverbs  iii.  II. 

61 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Daniel  himself  to  rule  over  the  whole  province 
of  Babylon  and  to  be  chief  governor  over  all  the 
wise  men  of  Babylon.* 

Nebuchadnezzar  in  due  time  had  another  dream, 
which  Daniel  was  called  upon  to  interpret.  It 
was  of  painful  import.  The  king  was  to  be  driven 
from  men;  his  dwelling  was  to  be  with  the  beasts 
of  the  field;  he  was  to  be  made  to  eat  grass  as 
oxen  and  to  be  wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and 
seven  times  were  to  pass  over  him  until  he  should 
know  "the  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom 
of  men  and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever  he  will." 
"At  the  end  of  the  days/'  said  Nebuchadnezzar 
in  his  official  proclamation  of  this  experience, 
"  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  ...  at 
the  same  time  mine  understanding  returned  unto 
me ;  and  for  the  glory  of  my  kingdom,  my  majesty 
and  brightness  returned  unto  me;  .  .  .  and  I 
was  established  in  my  kingdom,  and  excellent 
greatness  was  added  unto  me.  Now  I  Nebuchad- 
nezzar praise  and  extol  and  honor  the  King  of 
heaven ;  for  all  his  works  are  truth,  and  his  ways 
judgment:  and  those  that  walk  in  pride  he  is 
able  to  abase,  "f 

The  prophet  Joel,  speaking  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  God,  gives  us  very  distinctly  to  under- 
stand that  it  is  in  the  visions  of  the  night  that 
God  pours  out  his  spirit  upon  us :  "  It  shall  come 
to  pass  afterward,  that  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit 

*  Daniel  ii.  47.  T  Ib.  iv.  5. 

62 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

upon  all  flesh ;  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters 
shall  prophesy,  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams, 
your  young  men  shall  see  visions :  and  also  upon 
the  servants  and  upon  the  handmaids  in  those 
days  will  I  pour  out  my  spirit."* 

The  angel  of  God  spake  unto  Jacob  in  a  dream, 
saying :  "  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes,  and  see  that  all 
the  rams  which  leap  upon  the  cattle  are  speckled, 
ringstreaked,  and  grizzled:  for  I  have  seen  all 
that  Laban  doeth  unto  thee."  "Now  arise,  get 
thee  out  from  this  land,  and  return  unto  the  land 
of  thy  kindred." 

Thereupon  Jacob,  with  Rachel  his  wife,  and 
Leah,  stole  away  with  their  children,  their  cattle, 
and  their  goods,  unawares  to  Laban  the  Syrian. 
The  third  day  after  Jacob's  flight  Laban  first 
heard  of  it,  and  after  a  seven  days'  journey  over- 
took him  in  the  Mount  Gilead. 

Meantime,  God  came  to  Laban  the  Syrian  in 
a  dream  by  night,  and  said  unto  him,  "  Take  heed 
that  thou  speak  not  to  Jacob  either  good  or  bad." 
When  Laban  met  Jacob  he  chided  him  for  going 
away  secretly,  and  said:  "It  is  in  the  power 
of  my  hand  to  do  you  hurt :  but  the  God  of  your 
father  spake  unto  me  yesternight,  saying,  Take 
thou  heed  that  thou  speak  not  to  Jacob,  either 
good  or  bad." 

It  was  then  and  after  these  three  communica- 
tions from  on  high  that  the  covenant  between 

•Joel  ii.  28. 
63 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Laban  and  Jacob  was  entered  into  at  Mispah 
and  they  separated  in  peace. 

When  Gideon's  faith  in  the  Lord's  promise 
to  aid  him  in  a  war  against  the  Midianites  had 
been  miraculously  confirmed,  we  are  told  that 
"it  came  to  pass  the  same  night  that  the  Lord 
said  unto  him,  Take  thy  father's  bullock,  even 
the  second  bullock  of  seven  years  old,  and  throw 
down  the  altar  of  Baal  that  thy  father  hath,  and 
cut  down  the  Asherah  goddess  that  is  by  it,  and 
build  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  upon  the 
top  of  this  stronghold,  in  the  orderly  manner, 
and  take  the  second  bullock  and  offer  a  burnt 
offering  with  the  wood  of  the  Asherah  which 
thou  shalt  cut  down." 

The  same  night  the  Lord  directed  Gideon  to  go 
with  his  servants  and  visit  the  camp  of  the  Midian- 
ites, "and  when  Gideon  was  come  behold  there 
was  a  man  that  told  a  dream  unto  his  fellow  and 
said,  Behold  I  dreamed  a  dream,  and,  lo,  a  cake 
of  barley  bread  tumbled  into  the  camp  of  Midian 
and  came  unto  the  tent  and  smote  it  that  it  fell, 
and  turned  it  upside  down  that  the  tent  lay  along. 
And  his  fellow  answered  and  said,  This  is  nothing 
else  save  the  sword  of  Gideon,  the  son  of  Joash, 
a  man  of  Israel ;  into  his  hand  God  hath  delivered 
Midian  and  all  the  host." 

And  the  same  night  Gideon  and  his  hundred  men 
attacked  the  Midianites  and  put  them  to  flight. 

It  will  be  observed  that  each  of  the  three  miracu- 
lous processes  by  which  the  enemies  of  the  true 

64 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

Church  were  overcome  and  dispersed  were  all 
performed  in  the  night;  and  one  of  them — ap- 
parently the  most  important — was  the  result  of 
a  dream. 

When  Elijah  was  a  refugee  from  the  persecu- 
tions of  Jezebel,  and,  faint  with  hunger,  had 
fallen  asleep  under  a  juniper-tree,  an  angel  touched 
him  and  told  him  to  "arise  and  eat/'*  "He 
arose,  and  did  eat  and  drink,  and  went  in  the 
strength  of  that  meat  forty  days  and  forty  nights 
unto  Horeb,  the  mount  of  God." 

We  read  in  Job  that : 

"  By  reason  of  the  multitude  of  oppressions  they  cry 

out; 

They  cry  for  help  by  reason  of  the  arm  of  the  mighty. 
But  none  saith,  Where  is  God  my  Maker, 
Who  giveth  songs  in  the  night; 

Who  teacheth  us  more  than  the  beasts  of  the  earth, 
And  maketh  us  wiser  than  the  fowls  of  the  air?" 

"  I  will  bless  the  Lord,  who  hath  given  me  coun- 
sel," says  the  Royal  Psalmist;  "my  reins  also 
instruct  me  in  the  night  seasons."! 

"Thou  hast  proved  my  heart;  thou  hast  visited 
me  in  the  night;  thou  hast  tried  me  and  findest 
nothing;  I  am  purposed  that  my  mouth  shall 
not  transgress. "  J 

"Where  there  is  no  vision,"  said  Solomon, 
"the  people  cast  off  restraint."  § 

*  I  Kings  xix.  5.  t  Psalm  xvi.  7. 

J  Psalm  xvii.  3.  §  Proverbs  xxix.  18. 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

"For  the  Lord  will  command  his  loving  kind- 
ness in  the  daytime,  and  in  the  night  his  song 
shall  be  with  me."* 

The  exclusive  use  of  the  hours  usually  con- 
secrated to  sleep  to  herald  the  birth  of  our  Saviour 
is  so  remarkable  that  it  is  impossible  for  an  en- 
lightened Christian  to  read  the  story  as  reported 
by  Matthew  without  feeling  that  as  He  was  herald- 
ed to  his  parents  and  the  wise  men  of  the  East 
who  were  sent  to  search  for  Him,  He  is  heralded 
to  all  of  us  in  the  visions  of  the  night  "  when  God 
pours  out  his  spirit  upon  all  flesh." 

His  birth  was  foretold  by  an  angel  of  the  Lord 
who  appeared  unto  Joseph  in  a  dream,  saying, 
"  Joseph,  thou  son  of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto 
thee  Mary  thy  wife:  for  that  which  is  conceived 
in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  she  shall  bring 
forth  a  Son ;  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus ; 
for  it  is  he  that  shall  save  his  people  from  their 

sins."t 

The  same  event  was  announced  by  an  angel 
directly  to  Mary,  though  not  in  her  sleep,  and 
that  she  was  to  be  the  mother  of  our  Saviour. 
The  Magnificat  which  she  pronounced  when  she 
visited  Elizabeth,  immediately  after  the  concep- 
tion, shows  how  conscious  she  was  of  the  "day 
star"  that  had  risen  in  her  heart.  Joseph,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  minded  to  put  her  away 
privily  because  he  had  no  comprehension  of  the 

*  Psalm  xlii.  8.  t  Matthew  i.  20. 

66 


Sleep  in  the  Bible 

significance  and  import  of  this  new  birth.  An 
angel,  therefore,  was  sent  to  him  in  his  sleep  "to 
tell  him  not  to  fear  to  take  Mary  for  his  wife/' 
and  so  Joseph  arose  from  his  sleep  and  did  as 
the  angel  of  the  Lord  commanded  him. 

Mary  was  spiritually  prepared  for  this  new 
birth.  Joseph  was  not.  He  judged  as  the  world 
judged;  as  the  Apostles  were  judged  by  their 
hearers,  and  as  Paul  was  judged  by  Festus.  He 
had  to  be  taught  in  his  sleep  what  he  might  never 
have  received  while  awake  and  under  worldly 
influences.  The  world  may  be  presumed  to  have 
had  no  such  hold,  then,  upon  Mary. 

The  wise  men  who  were  sent  by  Herod  to  Bethle- 
hem to  search  out  carefully  the  young  child  Jesus, 
and,  when  found,  report  the  place  to  him,  icere 
warned  in  a  dream  that  they  should  not  return 
to  Herod,  so  they  departed  into  their  own  country 
another  way. 

When  they  were  departed,  an  angel  of  the  Lord 
appeared  to  Joseph  again  in  a  dream,  saying: 
"Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother 
and  flee  into  Egypt." 

After  the  death  of  Herod  an  angel  of  the  Lord 
appeared  once  more  in  a  dream  to  Joseph  in  Egypt, 
saying:  "Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and 
his  mother,  and  go  into  the  land  of  Israel:  for 
they  are  dead  that  sought  the  young  child's  life." 
Hearing,  however,  that  Herod's  son  was  reigning 
over  Judea,  he  feared  to  go  thither,  and  in  con- 
sequence of  being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  he 

67 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

withdrew  into  the  parts  of  Galilee,  to  a  city  called 
Nazareth. 

It  is  to  be  observed  here  that  everything  done 
to  bring  about  the  birth  and  protection  of  the 
infant  Jesus  was  done  in  obedience  to  angelic 
promptings  received  in  visions  of  the  night;  but 
no  such  promptings  were  received  by  Herod  or 
by  the  magi,  whose  interests  in  the  birth  of  Jesus, 
great  as  they  were,  were  of  a  worldly  character. 

When  Jesus  took  with  Him  Peter  and  James 
and  John  and  went  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray, 
there  talked  with  Him  two  men,  Moses  and  Elias, 
who  appeared  in  glory. 

Peter,  and  they  that  were  with  him,  were  heavy 
with  sleep,  but  when  they  were  fully  awake  they  saw 
his  glory.  Peter  then  said : 

"  Master,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here :  and  let  us  make 
three  tabernacles;  one  for  thee,  and  one  for  Moses,  and 
one  for  Elijah:  not  knowing  what  he  said. 

"  And  while  he  said  these  things,  there  came  a  cloud, 
and  overshadowed  them :  .  .  .  and  a  voice  came  out 
of  the  cloud,  saying,  This  is  my  Son,  my  chosen :  hear 
ye  him.  And  when  the  voice  came,  Jesus  was  found 
alone."* 

Till  then  Jesus,  Moses,  and  Elijah,  in  Peter's 
mind,  were  of  equal  dignity  and  equally  entitled 
to  tabernacles.  After  receiving  the  message  from 
the  clouds  his  spiritual  eyes  were  opened  to  see 

*  Luke  ix.  33. 

68 


The  Message  of  Pilate's  Wife 

the  difference  between  Jesus  and  his  companions, 
and  then  he  saw  no  one  but  Jesus. 

The  last  hours  of  our  Saviour  on  earth  were 
signalized  by  an  incident  no  less  pertinent  to  this 
inquiry  and  no  less  remarkable  than  any  of  those 
which  heralded  his  birth. 

While  Pilate  was  sitting  on  the  judgment-seat 
at  the  trial  of  Jesus  he  received  the  following 
message  from  his  wife: 

"  Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that  righteous  man : 
for  I  have  suffered  many  things  this  day  in  a  dream 
because  of  him."* 

How  interesting  beyond  expression  it  would 
be  to  know  the  tenor  of  this  noble  lady's  dream 
about  "that  righteous  man/'  an  outcast  from 
his  own  people,  whom  she  had  probably  never 
seen,  of  whom  she  could  have  known  nothing 
except  from  the  priests  and  pharisees  who  were 
clamoring  for  his  life;  who  belonged  to  a  race 
held  in  abhorrence  by  the  Roman  aristocracy, 
and  about  whom  she  had  been  warned  of  things  of 
so  grave  a  nature  as  to  impel  her  to  interrupt 
the  deliberations  of  the  tribunal  over  which  her 
husband  presided,  to  warn  him  to  assume  no  re- 
sponsibility for  whatever  the  Jews  under  their 
laws  might  do  with  their  prisoner.  Of  that 
woman — the  last  of  her  sex  from  whom  any  ex- 

*  Matthew  xxvii.  19. 
69 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

pression  of  sympathy  for  Jesus  in  his  lifetime 
emanated  that  has  survived  Him — we  know  not 
even  the  name;  nothing  but  the  memorable  mes- 
sage which  she  sent  to  her  husband. 

History  for  more  than  twenty  centuries  has 
treated  Cornelia,  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  as  the 
ideal  Roman  matron,  but  a  greater  than  Cornelia 
sent  that  message  to  Pilate. 

Nor  does  the  significance  of  that  extraordinary 
dream  end  here.  As  we  pursue  the  story  of  this 
most  famous  and  important  of  all  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, and  when  the  Jews  clamored  that  Barab- 
bas  rather  than  Jesus  should  be  pardoned,  Pilate 
asks:  "What  then  shall  I  do  with  Jesus  which 
is  called  Christ?"  they  all  said,  "Let  him  be  cruci- 
fied." Finding  that  a  tumult  would  be  the  con- 
sequence of  resisting  any  longer  the  passions 
of  the  crowd,  Pilate  "took  water  and  washed  his 
hands  before  the  multitude,  saying,  'I  am  in- 
nocent of  the  blood  of  this  righteous  man :  see 
ye  to  it.'" 

The  character  of  Jesus  which  Pilate's  wife  had 
learned  in  her  dream  and  communicated  in  her 
message,  her  husband  not  only  accepts  but  pro- 
claims from  his  judgment-seat.  This  is  the  first 
time  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  was  ever  pro- 
claimed by  any  officer  of  any  government  of 
Rome. 

While  Peter  was  waiting  for  his  dinner  in  Joppa 
he  fell  into  a  trance,  when  he  dreamed  the  heaven 

70 


Peter's  Dream  in  Joppa 

opened  and  a  vessel  descended  wherein  were  all 
manner  of  four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things 
of  the  earth  and  fowls  of  the  heaven.  "And 
there  came  a  voice  to  him,  Rise,  Peter,  kill  and 
eat.  But  Peter  said,  Not  so,  Lord;  for  I  have 
never  eaten  anything  that  is  common  and  un- 
clean. And  a  voice  came  unto  him  again  a  sec- 
ond time,  What  God  hath  cleansed,  make  thou 
not  unclean."*  While  Peter,  much  perplexed, 
thought  on  the  vision,  the  messengers  sent  by 
the  Lord  to  bring  him  to  Cornelius,  a  devout  man 
and  one  who  feared  God,  arrived.  Peter  ac- 
companied them  to  Cornelius,  who  had  called 
his  friends  together  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hear 
from  Peter  all  things  that  the  Lord  had  com- 
manded him. 

Why  was  Peter  put  in  a  trance  except  the  better 
to  qualify  him  to  receive  the  instructions  which 
he  afterwards  executed,  and  which  he  could  not 
have  executed  without  such  instructions? 

Cornelius  was  of  the  Italian  band,  not  a  Jew; 
hence  the  lesson  Peter  taught  him  in  the  trance, 
which  was — First,  to  teach,  what  the  Jews  did 
not  believe  as  a  rule,  or  even  suspect,  that  God 
is  no  respecter  of  persons,  but  that  "in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  acceptable  to  him."  Secondly,  to  teach 
that  Jesus  was  ordained  of  God  to  be  the  Judge 
of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  and  that  "  through  his 

*Acts  x.  9-16. 

71 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

name  every  one  that  believeth  on  him  shall  re- 
ceive remission  of  sins." 

As  a  result  of  these  teachings  we  are  told  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon  all  them  that  heard 
Peter,  and  they  were  amazed  because  that  on 
the  Gentiles  also  was  poured  out  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  when  Peter  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
and  was  called  to  account  for  what  he  had  done 
by  them  of  the  circumcision,  he  explained  what 
he  had  done  and  how  he  came  to  do  it.  There- 
upon they  "held  their  peace  and  glorified  God, 
saying,  Then  to  the  Gentiles  also  hath  God  grant- 
ed repentance  unto  life." 

No  one  can  fail  to  see  that  the  character  and 
scope  of  these  lessons  were  worthy  of  their  divine 
origin  and  could  have  had  no  other.  It  is  equally 
apparent  that,  to  impress  these  lessons  upon  the 
children  of  men,  it  was  necessary  that  Peter's 
consciousness  and  this  -  worldliness  should  first 
be  suspended  by  sleep. 

The  Apostle  Peter  was  sleeping  between  two 
soldiers  and  bound  with  two  chains,  when  "an 
angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by  him,  and  a  light  shined 
in  the  cell:  and  he  smote  Peter  on  the  side,  and 
awoke  him,  saying,  Rise  up  quickly.  And  his 
chains  fell  off  from  his  hands." 

The  most  definite  and  explicit  statement  of 
what  doubtless  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  the 
ultimate  —  the  vital  —  purposes  of  sleep  that  is 

72 


Elihu's  Rebuke  of  Job 

given  in  the  Bible  will  be  found  in  the  rebuke 
administered  to  Job  by  Elihu,  the  youngest  of 
his  comforters,  for  presuming  to  question  the 
justice  of  the  trials  he  was  enduring. 

"Surely,"  said  Elihu,  "thou  hast  spoken  in 
my  hearing,  and  I  have  heard  the  voice  of  thy 
words,  saying,  I  am  clean,  without  transgression ; 
I  am  innocent,  neither  is  there  iniquity  in  me: 
behold,  he  findeth  occasions  against  me,  he  count- 
eth  me  for  his  enemy;  he  putteth  my  feet  in 
the  stocks,  he  marketh  all  my  paths.  Behold,  I 
will  answer  thee;  in  this  thou  art  not  just;  for 
God  is  greater  than  man.  Why  dost  thou  strive 
against  him?  For  he  giveth  not  account  of  any  of 
his  matters.  For  God  speaketh  once,  yea  twice, 
though  man  regardeth  it  not.  In  a  dream,  in 
a  vision  of  night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men, 
in  slumberings  upon  the  bed,  THEN  HE  OPENETH 
THE  EARS  OF  MEN,  AND  SEALETH  THEIR 
INSTRUCTION,  THAT  HE  MAY  WITHDRAW  MAN 
FROM  HIS  PURPOSE  AND  HIDE  PRIDE  FROM 
MAN;  HE  KEEPETH  BACK  HIS  SOUL  FROM 
THE  PIT,  AND  HIS  LIFE  FROM  PERISHING  BY 
THE  SWORD."  * 

Have  we  not  here  a  plain  and  unequivocal  state- 
ment— 

First.  That  the  processes  of  spiritual  growth 
and  development  are  not  only  not  interrupted, 
but  are  more  than  ordinarily  active  during  sleep. 

*  Job  xxxiii.  8-18. 

73 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Secondly.  That  while  in  that  state  man  is 
withdrawn  from  his  own  purposes  for  much  higher 
purposes  than  animate  him  during  his  waking 
hours. 

Thirdly.  That  it  is  while  sleeping  God  openeth 
the  ears  of  men  and  sealeth  their  instruction,  and 
that,  like  the  children  of  Israel  in  their  journey 
through  the  wilderness,  we  are  guided  in  the 
daytime  by  God's  cloud,  in  the  night  by  his  light. 
Doth  not  his  cloud  limit  our  horizon  even  while 
revealing  the  path  we  are  to  take,  to  hide  us 
from  our  enemies,  while  his  light  by  night  en- 
larges our  horizon:  so  that  we  can  see  why,  as 
well  as  where,  we  are  to  prosecute  our  journey? 

How  could  the  purposes  of  sleep  be  more  ex- 
plicitly stated,  assuming  the  competence  of  the 
authority  stating  them?  How  could  their  im- 
portance be  made  more  impressive? 

What  events  are  recorded  in  the  whole  range 
of  secular  history,  I  will  not  say  of  graver,  but 
of  equal,  import  to  any  one  of  these  I  have  cited, 
to  which  sleep  is  treated  as  a  necessary  incident? 

There  are  some  who  affect  to  make  light  of 
the  Bible  story.  Conceding  for  a  moment  that 
it  is  a  work  of  the  imagination,  a  tradition,  a 
myth,  a  literature  merely  why  is  the  machinery 
of  sleep  so  constantly  introduced  on  occasions 
of  such  incomparable  importance?  Why  were 
not  these  several  communications,  or  revelations, 
made  directly  to  the  parties  interested  in  their 
waking  hours?  Why  were  the  hours  of  sleep 

74 


Why  Angels  Come  at  Night 

chosen  when  only  the  Divinity  could  know  whether 
the  communications  were  received  and  whether 
the  effect  intended  was  to  be  realized? 

Are  we  not  compelled  to  suppose  it  was  because 
a  divine  truth  was  more  sure  of  receiving  atten- 
tion; was  less  liable  to  encounter  worldly  ob- 
structions and  distractions  during  the  sleeping 
than  during  the  waking  hours? 

When  the  Master  wishes  to  address  us  we  may 
be  sure  that  He  will  select  the  moment  most  favor- 
able to  secure  our  attention.  It  is  not  conceivable 
that  He  should  select  any  other  than  the  most 
favorable.  And  if,  not  only  in  these  two  or  three 
cases,  but,  I  may  say,  so  uniformly  throughout 
the  whole  history  of  the  Church,  He  selected  the 
hours  when  our  consciousness  was  suspended,  to 
influence  our  will,  are  we  not  logically  bound  to 
presume  that  the  suspension  of  our  conscious- 
ness for  certain  hours  of  every  day  is  mainly, 
if  not  exclusively,  a  part  of  his  plan  to  secure 
access  to  our  souls  without  interfering  with  the 
freedom  of  our  wills?  Is  it  not  in  those  hours  of 
suspended  consciousness  that,  in  his  unfailing 
love  and  mercy,  He  adjusts  the  balance  between 
the  forces  of  good  and  evil  which  are  always  strug- 
gling with  each  other  in  our  souls,  during  our 
waking  hours  at  least,  like  the  "two  manner 
of  people"  in  Rebekah's  womb;  and  that,  in  that 
way,  He  defends  and  protects  our  power  to  choose 
between  good  and  evil,  between  right  and  wrong, 
between  righteousness  and  sin,  without  which 

75 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

protection  no  spiritual  growth  would  be  possible? 
For  it  is  only  by  his  providential  maintenance 
of  the  equilibrium  between  the  forces  of  good 
and  evil  operating  upon  us  in  this  life  that  we 
are  enabled,  through  every  stage  of  spiritual  and 
moral  degeneration,  to  retain  the  power  to  pursue 
the  right  and  eschew  the  wrong. 

Every  enlightened  Christian  understands  that 
we  are  created  and  placed  in  the  world  for  a  pur- 
pose which  contemplates  an  eternity  of  existence, 
during  which  we  are  expected  to  be  constantly 
growing  more  into  the  image  of  our  Creator.  Is 
it  reasonable  or  even  credible  to  suppose  that 
one-third,  or  indeed  any  minutest  portion,  of  our 
terrestrial  lives  would  necessarily  have  to  be 
spent  in  a  state  or  under  conditions  in  which 
no  progress  whatever  can  be  made  in  spiritual 
growth — in  regenerate  life?  To  entertain  such 
a  belief  is  to  question  the  essential  attributes 
of  Divinity.  He  who  grows  not  in  his  sleep,  says 
an  old  Gaelic  proverb,  will  not  grow  when  awake. 

Men  of  science  are  notoriously  agnostics  and 
materialists,  and  yet  they  pass  their  lives  trying 
to  learn  the  laws  of  the  universe,  which  are  the 
perfect  expression  of  divine  order.  The  more  of 
those  laws  we  know,  the  more  we  ought  to  be- 
lieve in  the  Maker  of  those  laws,  while  the  effect 
upon  the  scientist  seems  to  be  exactly  the  re- 
verse. "I  recognize  no  distinction  between  mat- 
ter and  spirit;  I  know  nothing  but  force,"  once 
wrote  the  late  President  Walker  to  me. 

76 


CHAPTER  VI 

Spiritual  influence  of  sleep  illustrated  by  its  privation — 
Diseases  resulting — Toussaint  L'Ouverture's  defence 
of  Hayti — Difference  in  sleeping  habits  of  domestic 
and  of  predatory  animals — Low  average  of  longevity 
among  savages  explained  —  Habits  of  venomous  and 
non-venomous  serpents  contrasted  —  Prominence  of 
sleep  in  the  machinery  of  Shakespeare's  plays — Dr. 
Wilkinson — Marie  Manaceine — Byron's  English  Bards 
and  Scotch  Reviewers — Alexander  von  Humboldt. 


THUS  far  we  have  studied  the  function  of  sleep 
from  its  effects,  and  some  of  its  uses.  Now  let  us 
look  a  little  further  into  the  effect  of  its  privation. 

The  sick  in  a  high  fever  get  little  sleep.  In 
time  they  are  apt  to  become  delirious.  If  they 
recover  it  is  almost  uniformly  after  an  unusually 
prolonged  and  quiet  sleep.  In  their  fever  and 
delirium  their  thought  and  speech  are  almost 
invariably  of  the  world  in  which  they  live,  its 
interests  and  concerns.  Wise  physicians  insist 
that  a  patient  under  treatment  should  never  be 
awakened  even  to  take  medicine.  There  is  no 
symptom  they  welcome  so  cordially  in  a  patient 
as  a  natural  sleep,  and  no  change  from  which 
they  expect  more  favorable  results. 

77 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

The  effect  of  being  awakened  from  a  sound 
sleep  is  always  unpleasant.  It  is  apt  to  make 
one  unsocial  and  irritable.  Any  such  abrupt 
recall  to  worldly  cares  induces  a  feeling  of  dis- 
content, such  as  usually  accompanies  all  unwel- 
come changes  of  condition  or  unpleasant  interrup- 
tions. Nor  is  it  without  significance  that  grown 
people  pretty  universally  prefer  to  be  left  alone 
for  some  time  after  waking,  while  we  rarely  find 
any  who  have  been  much  immersed  in  worldly 
cares  whose  friends  are  not  content  to  leave  them 
alone  for  a  time  after  waking. 

It  is  the  struggle  we  experience  in  exchanging 
abruptly  the  society  we  may  have  left  in  the  land 
of  dreams  for  that  which  we  meet  in  the  forum 
or  on  the  exchange  that  has  brought  some  stimulat- 
ing beverages,  such  as  coffee  or  tea  or  beer,  into 
such  general  use  early  in  the  day  throughout 
the  world.  On  waking,  and  before  we  experience 
any  appetite  for  food,  we  are  prone  to  welcome 
an  exhilarant  of  some  sort  to  overcome  our  re- 
luctance to  return  to  the  disciplinary  life  into 
which  we  were  born  to  be  trained. 

The  most  compact  and  instructive  statement 
of  the  physical  evils  that  follow  the  privation 
of  sleep  that  has  fallen  under  my  eyes  will  be 
found  in  a  work  entitled  Diseases  of  Modern  Life. 
The  author,  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson,  was 
for  many  years,  and  until  his  comparatively 
recent  death,  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Physicians  in  London.  In  the 

78 


The  Pathology  of  Insomnia 

eighteenth  chapter  of  this  work,  treating  of  disease 
from  late  hours  and  broken  sleep,  he  says: 

"  Although  it  is  impossible  to  define  in  one  term  any 
one  disease  originating  from  irregular  sleep  and  late 
hours  of  retiring  to  rest,  there  are  certain  impairments 
resulting  from  these  habits  which  influence  the  course 
of  the  health  and  help  materially  to  shorten  life.  .  .  . 

"  If,  in  the  period  of  his  early  life,  a  man  breaks  the 
rule  against  nature  and  by  a  strong  and  persistent 
effort  of  the  will  accustoms  himself  to  short  and  dis- 
turbed rest,  the  signs  of  distress  which  the  unrefreshed 
body  first  feels  are  modified,  and  extremely  short  hours 
of  sleep  may  become  the  rule  of  life.  .  .  . 

"  In  time,  sleeplessness  acquired  by  habit  becomes 
a  practice  which,  when  the  body  has  arrived  at  full 
maturity  and  more  rest  from  sleep  is  absolutely  de- 
manded, is  not  easily  thrown  aside.  At  such  stage 
the  bad  habit  tells  on  the  life,  and  the  physician  finds 
no  class  of  patients  so  difficult  to  treat  successfully,  even 
for  mere  functional  derangements,  as  the  habitually  sleep- 
less. There  is  about  the  patient  a  restless  anxiety, 
an  irritability,  and  a  nervous  feebleness  which  no  arti- 
ficial aid  can,  entirely,  subdue.  .  .  . 

"  In  adolescents,  even  if  they  be,  naturally,  of  sound 
constitution  and  firm  build,  deficient  sleep  is  a  persistent 
source  of  mental  and  bodily  exhaustion.  It  induces 
pallor,  muscular  debility,  restlessness,  and  irritability. 
It  interferes  with  that  natural  growth  and  nutrition  of 
the  body  to  which  sound  sleep  so  beneficently  ministers, 
and  it  makes  the  work  and  the  pleasure  of  the  wakeful 
day  unduly  heavy  and  laborious. 

"  These  remarks  apply  to  members  of  both  the  sexes, 
but  they  especially  apply  to  girls.  The  anaemia,  blood - 

79 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

lessness,  weakness,  and  hysterical  excitability  that 
characterize  the  young  lady  of  modern  life,  who  is  neither 
well  nor  ill,  are  due,  mainly,  to  her  bad  habit  of  taking 
too  limited  a  supply  of  sleep  at  irregular  hours. 

"  The  feebleness  which  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  robust 
who  deprive  themselves  in  youth,  or  who  are  deprived, 
of  the  due  amount  of  sleep,  taken  in  due  season,  is  great- 
ly increased,  and  is  of  much  more  serious  moment,  when 
it  falls  to  those  who  by  hereditary  taint  are  disposed 
to  an  acute  wasting  disease — to  pulmonary  consump- 
tion, to  name  the  most  familiar  example.  .  .  . 

"  From  adolescence  on  towards  the  close  of  that  period 
of  age  where  the  body  reaches  the  period  when  the  ma- 
turity is  attained  and  the  downward  course  of  life  is 
not  yet  on  hand,  the  strong  man  can  resist  sleep  often 
for  long  periods.  He  is  apt,  in  consequence,  to  trespass 
on  the  liberty  he  ventures  to  take  with  nature;  and 
when  from  any  cause  he  chooses  to  take  the  liberty, 
he  congratulates  himself,  perchance,  on  the  impunity 
with  which  he  is  able  to  violate  the  natural  law.  The 
delusion  is  not  of  very  long  duration.  As  the  middle  of 
the  second  stage  of  his  career  approaches  the  demand 
for  more  sleep  becomes  more  urgent,  and  happy  is  he 
who  at  this  crisis  can  recall  to  his  service  the  friend 
he  has  deserted. 

"If  in  middle  age  the  habit  of  taking  deficient  and 
irregular  sleep  be  still  maintained,  every  source  of  de- 
pression, every  latent  form  of  disease,  is  quickened 
and  intensified.  The  sleepless  exhaustion  allies  itself 
with  all  other  processes  of  exhaustion,  or  it  kills  im- 
perceptibly by  a  rapid  introduction  of  premature  old 
age,  which  leads  directly  to  premature  dissolution.  .  .  . 

"  The  effect  of  irregular  hours  and  of  deficiency  of  sleep 
is  developed  sometimes  in  another  way. 

80 


The  Pathology  of  Insomnia 

"  When  the  exhaustion  from  prolonged  sleeplessness 
is  felt  it  is  demonstrated  through  the  heart.  Inter- 
mittent action  of  the  heart  is  established,  and  all  the 
evils  belonging  to  that  broken  movement  are  set  in 
train.  This  state  of  things  is  most  readily  induced 
in  those  persons  who,  while  losing  their  natural  rest, 
are  engaged  in  working  against  time.  Newspaper  re- 
porters and  night  pressmen  are  very  quickly  influenced 
in  this  manner,  and  become  disabled  before  they  are 
fully  alive  to  their  disablement.  They  feel  at  times 
a  strange  sensation  of  faintness  or  coldness  coming 
over  them,  as  if  they  were  suddenly  enveloped  in  a 
haziness  or  obscurity ;  but,  by  applying  more  desperately 
to  their  work,  they  dash  the  sensation  aside  until  it 
returns  too  often  to  be  disposed  of  so  readily.  Then 
they  are  discovered  to  be  suffering  from  exhausted 
brain  and  irregular  circulation. 

"  Another  effect  is  sometimes  witnessed,  and  is  the 
most  distressing  of  all.  It  is  that  the  sleeplessness 
acquired  by  habit  begets  sleeplessness.  The  most 
extreme  insomnia  is  herewith  induced,  and  the  mind, 
knowing  no  rest  by  night  or  by  day,  is  quickly  off  its 
balance.  The  very  idea  that  sleep  will  not  come  under 
any  circumstances,  unless  it  be  enticed  by  powerful 
narcotics,  is  itself  preventive  of  all  natural  repose,  and 
as  the  dread  of  the  sleeplessness  increases  other  morbid 
trains  of  thought  arise  in  rapid  succession.  Some 
hypochondriacal  monomania  seizes  the  sufferer;  he 
imagines  the  most  improbable  accidents  are  about  to 
happen  to  him;  he  is  constantly  restless;  he  bites  his 
nails  to  the  quick,  or  keeps  up  some  peculiar  motion 
of  his  limbs,  a  rat-tat  on  the  table  or  a  gesticulatory 
action  of  an  exaggerated  character.  A  man  circum- 
6  8l 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

stanced  in  this  manner  passes,  usually,  with  steady 
advance,  into  insanity — too  often  into  suicide.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  said  that  those  who  sleep  differently  and 
irregularly  are  more  easily  affected  by  direct  causes  of 
disease  and  are  less  amenable  to  means  of  cure.  To 
this  should  be  added  the  equally  important  fact  that 
those  who  are  habituated  to  full  and  regular  sleep  are 
those  who  recover  most  readily  from  sickness.  The 
observation  of  this  truth  led  Menander  to  teach  that 
sleep  is  the  natural  cure  of  all  diseases.  It  is  so.  Sleep 
reduces  fever,  quickens  nutrition,  increases  elimination, 
soothes  pain,  and  encourages  the  healing  of  wounded 
surfaces.  Whoever  is  first  to  discover  the  still  secret 
cause  of  natural  sleep  and  the  mode  in  which  it  may 
be  commanded  by  art,  for  the  service  of  mankind,  will 
be  the  greatest  healer  who  has,  up  to  this  age,  helped  to 
make  medicine  immortal." 


The  length  of  time  a  man  can  preserve  his 
mental  faculties  without  sleep  varies  more  or 
less  with  the  constitution,  but  the  inevitable  re- 
sult is  delirium  before  many  days.  The  Chinese 
punish  a  certain  class  of  flagrant  crimes  by  con- 
stantly teasing  the  criminal  to  prevent  his  sleep- 
ing, and  it  is  among  the  punishments  regarded 
by  them  with  most  horror.  Historians  report 
that  Perseus,  the  last  king  of  ancient  Macedonia, 
while  a  prisoner  of  the  Romans,  was  "done  to 
death"  in  this  way  by  his  guards.  They  would 
not  permit  him  to  sleep. 

When  the  first  Napoleon  attempted  the  con- 
quest of  Hayti,  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  who  had 

82 


Napoleon's  Army  in  Hayti 

become  commander-in-chief  of  the  Haytians,  could 
not  venture  a  pitched  battle  with  the  battalions 
of  Napoleonic  veterans,  but  had  recourse  to  a 
less  risky  though  more  effective  method  of  war- 
fare. As  soon  as  the  French  troops  got  to  sleep 
at  night,  Toussaint  made  a  feint  of  attacking 
them,  thus  getting  them  all  up  and  under  arms. 
This  was  repeated  so  frequently  as  effectually  to 
prevent  their  getting  any  rest,  and  in  a  few  weeks 
an  army  of  thirty  thousand  veterans,  without  a 
single  engagement  in  the  field,  was  reduced  to 
about  five  thousand  effectives,  through  disease 
induced  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  by  want  of  sleep. 
It  is  reported  that  the  policy  of  the  Haytian  patriot 
was  prosecuted  by  the  insurgents  in  Cuba  in  their 
late  war  of  independence. 

Is  it  not  obvious  that  something  goes  on  during 
sleep  which  is  a  preventative  of  mania;  some 
change  is  wrought  that  could  not  be  wrought 
until  the  patient  was  liberated  from  the  bond- 
age of  his  worldly  environment,  and  made  ac- 
cessible to  influences  of  some  kind  which  could 
not  approach  him  while  under  such  bondage, 
and  that  those  influences  are  soothing,  civilizing, 
harmonizing,  fraternizing,  elevating. 

The  predatory  animals,  as  a  rule,  seek  their 
prey  at  night  and  their  repose  by  day.  They 
differ  in  this  respect  from  all  tamed  or  domesticated 
animals.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  they  sub- 
sist chiefly  upon  the  food  of  other  animals,  and 
are,  therefore,  ever  at  war  with  the  whole  animal 

83 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

kingdom,  not  always  sparing  their  own  progeny. 
Like  the  dangerous  classes  of  human  society, 
they  take  advantage  of  the  darkness  to  better 
conceal  their  purposes,  and  for  the  greater  chance 
of  finding  their  prey  asleep  or  off  its  guard. 

To  domesticate  or  tame  a  wild  animal,  it  is 
necessary  to  win  its  confidence  by  protecting  it 
from  its  predatory  fellows  and  accustoming  it 
to  sleep  without  fear.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
domesticated  animal  soon  becomes  wild  and 
dangerous  if  its  sleep  is  disturbed;  cows  fall  off 
in  their  yield  of  milk;  hens  will  not  lay;  sheep 
will  not  fatten. 

Wild  beasts  are  always  lean,  or,  rather,  never 
fat,  partly,  no  doubt,  if  not  entirely,  because  of  their 
precarious  livelihood,  which  compels  them  to  be 
constantly  on  the  alert  by  night  as  well  as  by  day. 

The  savage  tribes,  who  for  the  most  part  lead 
predatory  lives,  are  so  much  exposed  to  surprises 
that  they  rarely  get  regular  or  sufficient  sleep, 
and  take  their  rest  as  they  take  their  food,  when 
they  can  get  it,  but  without  periodicity  or  reg- 
ularity. This  goes  far  to  explain  not  only  why 
they  are  savage,  but  why  their  average  longevity 
is  much  less  than  that  of  civilized  peoples.  As 
they  emerge  from  the  savage  state  they  begin  to 
organize  into  societies  for  mutual  protection,  to 
share  one  another's  burdens,  and  to  secure  social 
privileges,  of  which  regular  and  abundant  sleep 
is  one  to  which  all  the  others  are  secondary.  That 
is  the  "  pillar  of  fire  by  night "  which  guides  them 


The  Sleep  of  Serpents 

from  a  life  of  barbaric  selfishness  towards  a  higher 
life  of  mutual  forbearance  and  fraternity.  The 
policeman's  rattle  is  the  official  symbol  of  civiliza- 
tion, for  upon  the  forces  it  rallies  to  the  defence 
of  order  we  depend  for  our  undisturbed  repose 
during  the  hours  when  darkness  offers  a  partial 
immunity  to  crime. 

The  venomous  snake,  which  is  the  symbol 
of  all  which  is  most  detested  and  detestable  .in 
the  animal  kingdom,  never  closes  its  eyes.  They 
are  covered  with  a  sort  of  scale,  transparent,  like 
glass,  which  allows  perfect  vision,  and  yet  is 
strong  enough  to  protect  the  eyes  from  the  or- 
dinary accidents  of  snake  life.  While  warm- 
blooded animals  shut  their  eyelids  to  exclude 
the  light  when  they  sleep  and  the  pupils  relax 
or  open,  in  the  serpent  this  action  is  reversed — 
the  pupil  contracts  like  a  cat's  in  the  sunlight. 
It  is  a  curiously  suggestive  and,  I  believe,  a  well- 
authenticated  fact,  that  the  most  deadly  ser- 
pents, the  Viperidae  and  Boidae,  are  cat-eyed 
and  night-prowlers.  Except  when  thirsty,  they 
will  rarely  be  seen  moving  about  in  the  daytime. 
The  Colubridae,  or  common,  harmless  snakes, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  round  pupils,  sleep  at 
night,  and  are  active  chiefly  during  sunlight 
hours. 

Professor  W.  E.  Leonard,  of  Minneapolis,  has 
given  a  most  interesting  account  of  the  patho- 
genetic  effects  of  what  is  known  in  medical  litera- 
ture as  lachesis.  The  late  Dr.  Herring,  of  Phila- 

85 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

delphia,  and  his  brave  wife  are  its  hero  and  heroine. 
Lachesis  is  the  common  name  of  a  deadly  poison- 
ous serpent  named  by  Linnaeus  Trigonocephalus 
lachesis,  partly  from  its  lance-shaped  head,  and 
partly  from  one  of  the  Greek  Fates,  and  because 
of  the  swift  and  fatal  effects  of  its  bite. 

Herring,  in  his  Condensed  Materia  Medica, 
enumerates  persistent  sleeplessness  among  the 
pathogenetic  symptoms  for  which  lachesis  is  a 
specific,  on  the  homoeopathic  principle  that  the 
hair  of  the  dog  that  bites  will  cure,  or  similia  simil- 
ibus  curantur.  Also,  "  children  toss  about,  moan- 
ing during  sleep." 

•  I  refer  to  the  venom  of  the  lachesis  as  a  remedial 
agent,  because  it  is,  I  believe,  a  rare,  if  not  the 
only  instance  of  any  deadly  serpent's  venom 
having  been  tested,  and  its  effects  upon  the  human 
system  carefully  noted  in  minute  detail,  and 
classified  by  a  professional  man  eminently  quali- 
fied for  such  a  task.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  most  conspicuous  effect  of  this  poison  is 
hostility  to  sleep,  and  when  sleep  does  intervene 
it  aggravates  all  other  symptoms,  as  if  it  and 
sleep  were  the  deadliest  and  wholly  unreconcilable 
enemies.  It  achieves  its  victories  over  its  victims 
more  swiftly  than  mere  privation  of  sleep  induced 
by  most  other  causes  is  supposed  to,  but  in  both 
cases  privation  of  sleep  seems  to  be  the  one  symp- 
tom without  the  concurrence  of  which  none  of 
the  others  would  necessarily  be  fatal. 

When  we  reflect  that  the  serpent  in  all  ages 
86 


Symbolism  of  Serpent 

has  been  the  symbol  of  what  was  most  fatal  to 
man's  peace;  that  it  was  the  serpent  that  first 
brought  temptation  and  disobedience  into  the 
world;  that  with  the  Greeks  the  head  of  Medusa, 
with  its  snaky  hair,  was  the  symbol  of  the  para- 
lyzing influence  of  vice;  that  Mercury's  wand 
was  composed  of  the  figures  of  two  fighting  ser- 
pents, and  that  he  himself  commenced  his  career 
as  a  divinity  by  stealing  the  oxen  of  Apollo ;  when 
we  reflect  that  serpent-worship  prevails  almost 
universally  among  savages,  who  fear  the  power 
and  cunning  of  serpents,  and  try  to  propitiate 
them  by  paying  them  divine  honors;  and  more- 
over, if  it  be  true,  as  there  is  ample  warrant  for 
presuming,  "a  reason  more  perfect  than  reason, 
and  influenced  by  its  partialities,  is  at  work  in 
us  when  we  sleep";  if,  as  the  pagan  philosopher 
affirmed,  "the  night-time  of  the  body  is  the  day- 
time of  the  soul " ;  if  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven 
"giveth  his  beloved  in  their  sleep,"  how  naturally 
and  instinctively  we  associate  the  serpent's  deadly 
bite,  so  fatal  to  sleep  and  life,  with  the  fearful 
curse  denounced  against  the  first  of  the  reptiles 
of  whom  we  have  any  record,  through  whose 
subtlety,  temptation  and  sin  first  came  into  the 
world.  Hence  perhaps  it  is  that  the  serpent  in 
the  Bible  symbolizes  every  form  of  temptation  to 
evil  or  sin,  and  hence,  only  in  our  sleep  are  the 
weapons  forged  with  which  we  can  successfully 
contend  with  them. 

Shakespeare,  who  was  no  less  unapproachable 
8? 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

for  his  philosophic  insight  than  as  a  poet,  makes 
Caesar  say: 

"  Let  me  have  men  about  me  that  are  fat ; 
Sleek-headed  men,  and  such  as  sleep  o'  nights; 
Yond'  Cassius  has  a  lean  and  hungry  look; 

.  .  .  but  I  fear  him  not; 
Yet  if  my  name  were  liable  to  fear, 
I  do  not  know  the  man  I  should  avoid 
So  soon  as  that  spare  Cassius. 

Seldom  he  smiles,  and  smiles  in  such  a  sort, 
As  if  he  mock'd  himself,  and  scorn'd  his  spirit, 
That  could  be  mov'd  to  smile  at  anything. 
Such  men  as  he  be  never  at  heart's  ease 
Whiles  they  behold  a  greater  than  themselves; 
And  therefore  are  they  very  dangerous." 

Brutus  was  selected  by  the  partisans  hostile  to 
Caesar  to  be  the  leader  in  the  conspiracy  against 
him,  because,  as  Cassius  expressed  it : 

"  He  sits  high  in  all  the  people's  hearts : 
And  that  which  would  appear  offence  in  us, 
His  countenance,  like  richest  alchemy, 
Will  change  to  virtue  and  to  worthiness." 

After  calling  his  servant  Lucius  several  times 
without  receiving  any  reply — it  is  after  midnight 
and  the  man  is  asleep — Brutus  exclaims: 

"  I  would  it  were  my  fault  to  sleep  so  soundly." 

In  the  same  scene  Lucius  is  again  caught  nap- 
ping. Brutus  calls: 


Shakespeare's  Notions  of  Sleep 

"Boy!     Lucius! — Fast  asleep?    It  is  no  matter; 
Enjoy  the  heavy  honey-dew  of  slumber: 
Thou  hast  no  figures  nor  no  fantasies, 
Which  busy  care  draws  in  the  brains  of  men; 
Therefore  thou  sleep'st  so  sound." 

When  Lucius  is  gone  and  leaves  Brutus  alone, 
he  says: 

"  Since  Cassius  first  did  whet  me  against  Caesar, 
I  have  not  slept. 

Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 
Like  a  phantasma  or  a  hideous  dream: 
The  Genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council;  and  the  state  of  man, 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom,  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection." 

The  pertinacity  with  which  Shakespeare  dwells 
upon  the  sleeplessness  of  Brutus  from  the  time 
he  began  to  entertain  the  suspicion  that  the  liber- 
ties of  Rome  depended  upon  the  immediate  death 
of  Caesar,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  this  marvellous 
play.  A  little  later  in  the  piece,  when  Cassius  apol- 
ogizes for  entering  and  disturbing  Brutus's  rest, 
Brutus  replies  that  he  has  been  awake  all  night. 
In  the  same  scene  Portia,  his  wife,  enters  to  re- 
monstrate with  him: 

Brutus,     Portia,  what  mean  you  .  .  .  now? 
It  is  not  for  your  health  thus  to  commit 
Your  weak  condition  to  the  raw-cold  morning. 

89 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Portia.     Nor  for  yours  neither.     You've   ungently, 

Brutus, 

Stole  from  my  bed:  and  yesternight,  at  supper, 
You  suddenly  arose,  and  walk'd  about, 
Musing  and  sighing,  with  your  arms  across; 
And  when  I  ask'd  you  what  the  matter  was, 
You  star'd  upon  me  with  ungentle  looks:  . 
But  with  an  angry  wafture  of  your  hand, 
Gave  sign  for  me  to  leave  you:  so  I  did; 
Fearing  to  strengthen  that  impatience 
Which  seem'd  too  much  enkindled.  .  .  .  Dear  my  lord, 
Make  me  acquainted  with  your  cause  of  grief. 

Brutus.    I  am  not  well  in  health,  and  that  is  all. 

Portia.    Brutus  is  wise,  and,  were  he  not  in  health, 
He  would  embrace  the  means  to  come  by  it. 

Brutus.    Why,  so  I  do. — Good  Portia,  go  to  bed. 

Portia.     Is  Brutus  sick?  .  .  . 
And  will  he  steal  out  of  his  wholesome  bed,  .  .  . 
And  tempt  the  rheumy  and  unpurged  air 
To  add  unto  his  sickness?    No,  my  Brutus; 
You  have  some  sick  offence  within  your  mind, 
Which,  by  the  right  and  virtue  of  my  place, 
I  ought  to  know  of:  and,  upon  my  knees, 
I  charm  you,  by  my  once-commended  beauty, 
By  all  your  vows  of  love,  and  that  one  great  vow 
Which  did  incorporate  and  make  us  one, 
That  you  unfold  to  me,  yourself,  your  half, 
Why  you  are  heavy;  and  what  men  to-night 
Have  had  resort  to  you, — for  here  have  been 
Some  six  or  seven,  who  did  hide  their  faces 
Even  from  darkness. 

I  am  still  far  from  having  exhausted  all  that 
Shakespeare  has  to  teach  us  on  the  subject  of 

90 


Shakespeare's  Notions  of  Sleep 

sleep  or  its  privation.  Whatever  takes  a  deep 
hold  upon  a  mind  like  Shakespeare's  can  always 
be  studied  with  profit,  and  the  prominence  he  gave 
to  both  in  his  plays  warrants  the  belief  that  few 
of  the  phenomena  of  sleep  or  of  sleeplessness 
escaped  his  incomparable  powers  of  observation. 
No  one  familiar  with  his  plays  will  often  think 
of  sleep  as  a  condition  of  existence  without  being 
reminded  of  that  thrilling  soliloquy  of  Henry 
IV.: 

"  How  many  thousand  of  my  poorest  subjects 
Are  at  this  hour  asleep! — 0  Sleep,  0  gentle  Sleep, 
Nature's  soft  nurse,  how  have  I  frighted  thee, 
That  thou  no  more  wilt  weigh  my  eyelids  down, 
Nor  steep  my  senses  in  forgetfulness? 
Why  rather,  Sleep,  liest  thou  in  smoky  cribs, 
Upon  uneasy  pallets  stretching  thee, 
And  hush'd  with  buzzing  night-flies  to  thy  slumber, 
Than  in  the  perfum'd  chambers  of  the  great, 
Under  the  canopies  of  costly  state, 
And  lull'd  with  sounds  of  sweetest  melody? 
0  thou  dull  god,  why  liest  thou  with  the  vile 
In  loathsome  beds,  and  leav'st  the  kingly  couch 
A  watch  case  or  a  common  'larum  bell? 
Wilt  thou  upon  the  high  and  giddy  mast 
Seal  up  the  ship-boy's  eyes,  and  rock  his  brains 
In  cradle  of  the  rude  imperious  surge, 
And  in  the  visitation  of  the  winds, 
Who  take  the  ruffian  billows  by  the  top, 
Curling  their  monstrous  heads,  and  hanging  them 
With  deafening  clamor  in  the  slippery  shrouds, 
That,  with  the  hurly,  death  itself  awakes? — 

91 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Canst  thou,  0  partial  Sleep,  give  thy  repose 

To  the  wet  sea-boy  in  an  hour  so  rude ; 

And  in  the  calmest  and  most  stillest  night, 

With  all  appliances  and  means  to  boot, 

Deny  it  to  a  king?    Then,  happy  low,  lie  down! 

Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown." 

Queen  Margaret  thus  brings  her  curse  of  the 
villanous  Gloster  to  a  climax: 

"  No  sleep  close  up  that  deadly  eye  of  thine, 
Unless  it  be  while  some  tormenting  dream 
Affrights  thee  with  a  hell  of  ugly  devils!" 

Lady  Percy  says  to  Hotspur: 

"  Why  hast  thou  lost  the  fresh  blood  in  thy  cheeks 
And  given  my  treasures  and  my  rights  of  thee 
To  thick-eyed  musing  and  curs'd  melancholy 

Tell  me,  sweet  lord,  what  is't  that  takes  from  thee 
Thy  stomach,  pleasure,  and  thy  golden  sleep?" 

The  Abbess  in  "  The  Comedy  of  Errors  "  says  to 
Adriana : 

'  The  venom-clamors  of  a  jealous  woman 
Poison  more  deadly  than  a  mad-dog's  tooth. 
It  seems  his  sleeps  were  hinder'd  by  thy  railing: 

In  food,  in  sport,  in  life-preserving  rest 

To  be  disturb'd,  would  mad  or  man  or  beast." 

With  exquisite  art  Shakspeare  makes  Macbeth 
expatiate  upon  the  blessedness  of  "innocent 
sleep"  after  his  murder  of  Duncan,  and  after 

92 


Shakespeare's  Notions  of  Sleep 

he  had  forfeited  forever  the  capacity  of  enjoying 
it  himself: 

"  Methought  I  heard  a  voice  cry  '  Sleep  no  more  1 
Macbeth  does  murder  sleep  ' — the  innocent  sleep, 
Sleep  that  knits  up  the  ravell'd  sleave  of  care, 
The  death  of  each  day's  life,  sore  labor's  bath, 
Balm  of  hurt  minds,  great  nature's  second  course, 
Chief  nourisher  in  life's  feast." 

Later  on  in  the  same  play  we  read: 

"  With  Him  above 
To  ratify  the  work — we  may  again 
Give  to  our  tables  meat,  sleep  to  our  nights." 

In  the  first  scene  of  the  second  act  of  "  The  Tem- 
pest," when  Alonzo  notes  that  several  of  his  com- 
panions who  escaped  from  the  wreck  had  suddenly 
gone  to  sleep,  he  says : 

What,  all  so  soon  asleep!     I  wish  mine  eyes 

Would,  with  themselves,  shut  up  my  thoughts:  I  find 

They  are  inclined  to  do  so. 

Seb. —  Please  you,  sir, 

Do  not  omit  the  heavy  offer  of  it: 
It  seldom  visits  sorrow;  when  it  doth, 
It  is  a  comforter. 

lago,  after  poisoning  the  jealous  nature  of 
Othello,  says: 

"  Not  poppy,  nor  mandragora, 
Nor  all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world, 
Shall  ever  medicine  thee  to  that  sweet  sleep 
Which  thou  ow'dst  yesterday." 

93 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

The  Witch,  in  enumerating  the  calamities  in 
store  for  the  Sailor  in  "Macbeth,"  says: 

"  Sleep  shall  neither  night  nor  day 
Hang  upon  his  pent-house  lid ; 
He  shall  live  a  man  forbid." 

To  fall  asleep  in  a  house  of  worship  I  fancy 
to  be  much  less  of  a  reproach  than  is  common- 
ly supposed.  To  the  devout  worshipper  the  ten- 
dency of  everything  in  the  house  of  God  is,  or 
should  be,  as  in  sleep — to  separate  him  from  the 
world.  In  the  degree  in  which  our  devotions  are 
unmixed,  undiluted  with  selfish,  worldly,  and 
personal  considerations,  our  will  is  also  quiescent 
as  in  sleep.  "  Rousing  sermons,"  stirring  pulpit 
oratory,  may  stimulate  the  intellect  and  keep 
even  the  devoutest  people  wakeful,  but  it  does 
not  follow  that  they  make  the  exercises  of  the 
Sabbath  more  profitable,  at  least,  to  all.  The 
most  wide-awake  people  in  church  may  be  in  a 
closer  relation  with  the  world  than  with  their 
Creator,  who,  in  the  language  of  the  prophet, 
may  be  "near  in  their  mouth  and  far  from  their 
reins." 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  those  who  have  no  habit 
or  inclination  to  sleep  during  the  morning  hours 
of  secular  days,  to  be  overcome  with  somnolency 
in  church  soon  after  the  devotional  exercises 
are  begun,  and  who  find  it  impossible  to  derive 
any  edification  from  them  until  they  have  lost 
themselves  for  a  moment  or  two  in  absolute  un- 

94 


Sleeping  in  Temples 

consciousness.  Then  they  have  no  difficulty, 
sometimes  a  lively  pleasure,  in  attending  to  the 
exercises  which  follow.  The  worshipper  is  then 
withdrawn  from  the  familiar  excitement  of  cus- 
tomary avocations.  It  is  idle  to  suppose  that  in 
these  few  moments  of  repose,  upright  in  his  pew, 
he  has  rested  enough,  in  the  common  acceptation 
of  that  word,  to  repair  any  waste  of  tissue  that 
would  explain  the  new  sense  of  refreshment  that 
ensues.  He  has  received,  in  that  brief  retirement 
from  the  world,  some  reinforcements  which  mani- 
festly are  not  dependent  upon  time  or  space  for 
their  efficacy — spiritual  reinforcements,  and  spirit- 
ual reinforcements  only.  He  has  removed  him- 
self, or  been  removed,  further  away,  out  of  sight  or 
hearing  or  thinking,  so  to  speak,  of  his  phenome- 
nal life,  and  nearer  to  the  Source  of  all  life. 

It  was  quite  a  common  impression  among  the 
ancients  that  sleepers  in  temples  of  religion  were 
more  apt  to  receive  divine  communications  there 
than  elsewhere.  Strabo  is  perhaps  our  most 
important  pagan  authority  on  this  subject.  He 
says: 

"  In  fact,  Moses,  an  Egyptian  priest,  who  possessed 
a  part  of  the  country  called  (Delta?),  left  there  to  go 
into  Judea,  having  taken  a  disgust  for  the  institutions 
of  his  country.  With  him  parted  a  great  number  of 
men  who  honored  the  divinity..  He  said  and  taught 
that  the  Egyptians  and  the  Libyans  were  fools  to  pre- 
tend to  represent  the  divinity  in  the  figures  of  ferocious 
or  domestic  animals;  that  the  Greeks  were  no  wiser 

95 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

when  they  gave  Him  the  human  figure.  According 
to  him,  divinity  was  nothing  else  than  that  which  en- 
velops us — the  earth  and  the  sea — to  wit,  what  we  call 
heaven,  the  world,  or  nature.  Now  what  sensible  man 
would  dare  to  represent  this  divinity  by  an  image  made 
on  the  model  of  one  of  us?  He  required  them,  therefore, 
to  renounce  all  manufacture  of  idols,  to  limit  their  honors 
to  divinity  by  dedicating  to  it  a  place  and  a  sanctuary 
worthy  of  it  without  any  image.  It  was  necessary 
also  that  those  who  were  subjects  for  happy  dreams 
should  come  to  this  sanctuary  to  sleep,  in  order  to  ac- 
quire their  inspirations  for  them  and  for  others,  for 
the  wise  and  the  just  had  always  to  expect  from  the 
divinity  goods,  favors,  signs;  but  this  expectation  is 
interdicted  to  other  mortals. 

"  By  this  discourse  Moses  persuaded  a  large  number 
of  men  of  sense,  and  led  them  into  the  country  where 
is  rising  to-day  the  city  of  Jerusalem." 

Pomponius  Mela  is  another  pagan  writer  who 
speaks  of  the  practice  in  Italia-Graeca  of  sleeping 
in  temples  for  the  purpose  of  securing  revelations 
by  dreams. 

We  have  already  quoted  the  statement  of  lam- 
blichus,  "  that  numbers  of  sick,  by  sleeping  in  the 
temple  of  JSsculapius,  have  had  their  cure  revealed 
to  them  in  dreams  vouchsafed  by  the  god." 

Samuel,  while  a  child,  slept  in  the  temple  of 
the  Lord  where  the  ark  of  God  was.  It  was  there 
that  the  Lord  called  him  by  name  and  prepared 
him  to  become  one  of  his  prophets.* 

*  I  Samuel  iii.  19. 
96 


Visions  of  Sleepers  in  Temples 

Among  the  Hebrews  the  practice  seems  to  have 
been  quite  common.  We  are  told  in  Luke  xi.  36, 
that  Anna  the  Prophetess,  who  had  been  a  widow 
fourscore  -  and  -  four  years,  "departed  not  from 
the  temple,  worshipping  with  fastings  and  sup- 
plications night  and  day." 

Solomon  went  to  Gibeon  to  sacrifice ;  "  the  peo- 
ple sacrificed  only  in  high  places,  because  there 
was  no  house  built  for  the  name  of  the  Lord 
until  those  days."  Gibeon  was  the  great  high 
place,  which  meant  the  place  where  there  was  a 
house  built  for  the  name  of  the  Lord.  It  was 
while  there,  we  are  told,  that  the  Lord  appeared 
to  Solomon  in  a  dream  by  night;  and  because  he 
asked  the  Lord  to  give  him  an  understanding 
heart  to  judge  his  people  that  he  might  discern 
between  good  and  evil,  and  did  not  ask  for  riches 
and  long  life,  the  Lord  gave  him  not  only  for 
what  he  asked,  but  riches  and  honor  as  well, 
"so  that  there  should  be  no  kings  like  him  in 
all  his  days,"  and  a  contingent  promise  to  lengthen 
his  days. 

So  in  Hosea  it  is  said: 

"  The  Lord  hath  also  a  controversy  with  Judah, 
and  will  punish  Jacob  according  to  his  ways ;  according 
to  his  doings  will  he  recompense  him.  In  the  womb 
he  took  his  brother  by  the  heel;  and  in  his  manhood 
he  had  power  with  God :  yea,  he  had  power  over  the 
angel,  and  prevailed:  he  wept,  and  made  supplication 
unto  him:  he  found  him  at  Beth-el,  and  there  he  spake 
with  us;  even  the  Lord,  the  God  of  hosts." 
7  97 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  any  of 
these  authorities  that  this  greater  accessibility  to 
spiritual  influence  might  have  been  due  only  to 
the  more  complete  abstraction  from  the  world 
which  such  a  retreat  encourages. 

Dean  Swift,  in  a  letter  to  Pope,  August  30, 
1716,  says :  "  I  know  it  was  anciently  the  custom 
to  sleep  in  temples  for  those  who  would  consult  the 
oracles.  '  Who  dictates  to  me  slumbering/  "  etc.* 

I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  Carl  Abel,  a  learned  German 
philologist,  for  a  clipping  from  the  Berlin  Woche, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  German  illustrated 
weeklies,  which  he  accompanies  with  the  follow- 
ing remarks: 

"  It  [the  clipping]  actually  alleges  the  continuance 
to  this  day  in  a  Roman  Catholic  village  near  Vienna 
of  the  ancient  Jewish  practice  of  sleeping  in  hallowed 
precincts  with  a  view  to  being  favored  with  inspired 
dreams.  At  Jerusalem  it  was  the  temple  that  promised 
inspiration;  at  Vienna,  or,  rather,  at  Salmannsdorf, 
it  is  a  sacred  wood.  In  the  ancient  dispensation  the 
communication  expected  was  to  enable  the  recipient 
to  discern  the  tendency  of  the  divine  will  in  a  matter 
of  serious  import.  At  present  the  oracle  sought  after 
seems  generally  to  refer  to  the  choice  of  lottery  tickets." 

The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  clipping 
from  the  Woche,  August  2,  1902 : 

"  HOLY  FOREST. — A  quite  unusual  picture  may  be 
seen  within  five  minutes'  distance  of  the  great  city  of 

*  Milton. 
98 


Visions  of  Sleepers  in  Temples 

Vienna,  in  the  forest  of  Salmannsdorf.  The  trees  at 
the  entrance  of  the  forest  are  hung  with  oil  paintings  and 
engravings,  etchings,  bronzes,  marbles,  etc. — a  real  art- 
gallery  created  by  religious  people,  among  which  con- 
noisseurs will  recognize  many  valuable  pieces,  suffering 
from  exposure  to  the  weather.  This  place,  about  which 
there  are  many  stories  current,  is  considered  holy  and 
is  called  '  Forest  Prayer.'  Crowds  of  the  superstitious 
sleep  there  in  the  hope  of  dreaming  the  lucky  numbers 
to  be  played  for  in  the  Austrian  lotteries." 

To  this  it  is  pleasant  to  add  some  wise  observa- 
tions of  a  Russian  lady  who  has  recently  pub- 
lished a  work  of  substantial  value  on  the  pathology 
of  sleep: 

"  All  the  complicated  conditions  of  social  existence  to 
which  during  waking  life  we  are  all  obliged  to  conform 
or  to  resist,  are  eliminated  during  sleep  and  the  psychic 
life  of  dreams  unrolls  freely  without  the  impeding  fet- 
ters of  social  laws.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  these  social 
laws,  which  surround  every  human  existence,  some- 
times become  a  heavy  burden,  and  that  they  develop 
at  the  same  time  a  certain  hypocrisy  in  feeling  and 
thought  and  action,  and  thus  give  rise  to  endless  false- 
hood and  deceit.  In  sleep  all  this  changes.  We  are 
delivered  from  the  heavy  burden  imposed  by  those  vital 
conditions  which  by  virtue  of  historical  development 
have  gained  a  certain  empire  in  a  given  nation  or  society, 
but  which  are  very  often  at  the  same  time  not  merely 
opposed  to  the  desires  and  impulses  of  men,  but  even 
injurious  to  the  development  and  well-being  of  individuals 
who  live  in  the  midst  of  the  nation  or  society.  From 
all  these  conventional  chains  we  are  liberated  during 

99 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sleep  and  brought,  as  it  were,  face  to  face  with  nature. 
During  sleep — as  the  philosophic  physiologist,  Burdach, 
remarked  —  all  social  differences  disappear;  and  men 
attain  that  perfect  equality  which  in  the  waking  state 
they  can  only  dream  of."* 

Lord  Byron  told  George  Ticknor  that  he  wrote 
the  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers  at  his 
paternal  estate  in  the  country  the  winter  before 
he  set  forth  on  his  travels,  while  a  heavy  fall 
of  snow  was  on  the  ground,  and  he  kept  house  for 
a  month,  during  which  time  he  never  saw  the 
light  of  day,  rising  in  the  evening  after  dark  and 
going  to  bed  in  the  morning  before  dawn. 

What  better,  what  other  explanation  could  be 
given  of  the  tone,  spirit,  and  purpose  of  this  bru- 
tal satire  than  this  systematic  and  persistent  vio- 
lation of  the  laws  of  nature  for  a  whole  month, 
during  which  time  noxious  stimulants  were  to  a 
large  extent  a  substitute  for  wholesome  sleep? 

The  medical  profession  throughout  the  world 
has  generally  accepted  Hufeland's  division  of  a 
day  of  time  as  incontestably  the  most  rational 
— that  is:  eight  hours  for  work,  eight  hours  for 
sleep,  eight  hours  for  nourishment,  corporal  exer- 
cise, and  recreation. 

Humboldt,  of  delicate  health  in  his  youth,  like 
Napoleon  and  Leibnitz,  is  reported  to  have  allowed 
himself  but  three  hours'  sleep  in  every  twenty- 

*  Sleep ':   Its  Physiology,  Pathology,    Hygiene,    and   Psy. 
chology.     By   Marie   Manaceine,   p.    1 12. 
TOO 


Humboldt 

four,  and  that,  despite  the  enormous  activity  of 
his  mind,  he  attained  a  very  advanced  age.  Lest 
one  should  attach  undue  importance  to  such 
an  eminent  example,  I  will  quote  one  or  two  ex- 
tracts which  deserve,  I  think,  to  be  carefully 
weighed  in  the  balance  against  Humboldt's  prac- 
tice, if  that  practice  is  correctly  reported. 

Schmettau,  in  his  Life  of  Frederick  William 
the  Fourth,  says,  in  speaking  of  Humboldt's 
Cosmos, 

"  in  which,  without  any  thought  of  the  Creator,  he 
faithfully  describes  nature  and  everything  which  man 
has  been  able  to  prize  there,  regardless  of  the  Bible, 
which  only  exalts  the  acts  of  the  Creator  without  oc- 
cupying itself  with  the  achievements  of  men.  The 
man  who,  in  combining  the  results  of  an  existence  of 
eighteen  lustres  has  only  succeeded  in  blasemg  him- 
self with  his  own  self-sufficiency  and  in  proudly  leaving 
God  on  one  side,  living  without  thought  of  Him,  cannot 
yet  have  penetrated  to  the  sources  of  wisdom  the  fruit 
of  which  is  peace  to  the  soul.  The  influence  which 
Humboldt  has  exerted  on  his  age  will  probably  profit 
no  one  except  the  powers  which  wish  to  destroy  that 
peace." 

G.  Menzel,  in  his  History  of  Modern  Times, 
speaking  of  the  Cosmos,  says : 

"  It  was  in  express  conflict  with  the  Bible  as  the  Book 
of  Books.  In  his  expos£  of  the  totality  of  nature  there 
is  no  veneration  nor  mention  of  the  Creator.  Nature 
appears  there  as  an  indifferent  substance  which  only 
acquires  importance  as  it  is  recognized  and  employed 
JOI 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

by  man.  Humboldt  takes  no  account  of  the  Creator 
and  the  essence  of  things,  only  of  the  man  who  dis- 
covers, explains,  and  invents.  He  only  exalts  the 
human  intellect  as  an  explorer,  and  works  entirely 
in  the  sense  of  the  Hegelian  philosophy,  in  which  God 
exists  only  so  far  as  he  is  the  object  of  the  thought  of 
man.  Under  Humboldt's  influence  the  natural  sciences 
in  Germany,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  were  turned 
against  Christianity." 

Would  Humboldt  have  left  such  a  deplorable 
record  among  his  most  enlightened  contempora- 
ries had  he  divided  his  day  as  recommended  by 
Huf  eland? 


CHAPTER  VII 

What  is  meant  by  God's  resting  on  the  seventh  day 
of  creation  and  enjoining  the  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath as  a  day  of  rest  for  his  people. 


THE  faithful  student  of  the  Bible  may  ask, 
How  can  one  reconcile  this  theory  of  sleep  with 
the  second  of  the  commandments  delivered  to 
Moses,  in  which  we  are  told  that  on  the  expiration 
of  the  six  days  in  which  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  He  rested  the  seventh  day?  If  God 
rested,  why  should  not  man  rest? 

This  question  might  be  best  answered,  per- 
haps, by  another.  How  can  a  being  of  infinite 
power  be  conceived  of  experiencing  fatigue,  or 
needing  rest  in  the  sense  implied  in  this  ques- 
tion? Such  a  notion  of  God  is  not  only  incon- 
sistent with  the  necessary  and  indisputable  attri- 
butes of  the  Supreme  Being — the  Causa  causans; 
but,  worse  than  that,  it  imports  either  polytheism 
or  atheism. 

It  was  one  of  the  reproaches  which  the  pagans 
made  against  the  early  Christians  that  they  passed 
every  seventh  day  in  effeminate  idleness,  in  imi- 
tation of  their  wearied  God  —  a  reproach  which 
103 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

is  not  without  point,  if  the  God  they  worshipped 
was  subject  to  fatigue. 

Claudius  Rutilius  Namatianus,  author  of  an 
elegiac  poem  in  two  books,  describing  his  trip 
from  Rome  to  Gaul,  416  A.D.,  speaks  of  a  charm- 
ing country  place  he  visited  on  leaving  Falerie, 
the  manager  in  charge  of  which  was  a  querulous 

Jew: 

"  Namque  loci  querulus  curam 

Judaeus  agebat," — 

who  scolds  him  for  disturbing  the  shrubbery  and 
wasting  the  water. 

"We  rebuked  him"  [he  says]  "as  his  ignoble  race 
deserved  —  a  shameless  people  whose  practice  of  cir- 
cumcision is  the  root  of  all  absurdities  of  this  ignoble 
race,  who  celebrate  with  all  their  soul  their  stupid  Sab- 
bath, but  with  a  soul  more  stupid  than  their  religion, 
and  pass  in  shameful  idleness  every  seventh  day  in 
effeminate  imitation  of  their  wearied  God."* 

Another  answer  to  the  question  may  be  found 
in  the  second  and  third  verses  of  the  second  chapter 
of  Genesis,  where  we  are  told  that  "  God  finished 
his  work  which  he  had  made;  and  he  rested  on 
the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had 
made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and 

*  "  Reddimus  obscenae  convicia  debita  genti 

Quae  genitale  caput  propudiosa  metit, 
'    Radix  stultitiae,  cui  frigida  sabbata  cordi, 

Sed  cor  frigidius  religione  sua : 
Septima  quaeque  dies  turpi  damnata  veterno, 
Tanquam  lassati  mollis  imago  dei." 
104 


Rest  of  the  Sabbath 

hallowed  it,  because  that  in  it  he  rested  from  all 
his  work  which  God  had  created  and  made." 

Rest  in  its  ordinary  acceptance  implies  ex- 
haustion of  force;  a  feebleness  which  if  not  re- 
inforced must  result  in  death — a  condition  not 
thinkable  of  our  Creator.  In  the  case  under 
consideration  it  could  mean  nothing  of  that  kind 
because  another  and  very  different  reason  was 
distinctly  assigned;  it  was  because  God  had  dis- 
tinguished that  from  other  days  of  creation  by 
blessing  and  sanctifying  it. 

In  blessing  and  sanctifying  rest,  God  certainly 
did  not  bless  and  sanctify  idleness,  an  interruption 
of  growth,  a  suspension  of  all  productive  activities, 
a  temporary  death.  These  are  not  qualities  that 
merit  or  invite  sanctification,  any  more  than  om- 
nipotence is  susceptible  of  fatigue.  It  is  clear 
that  this  discrimination  of  the  Sabbath  from  other 
days  was  not  to  secure  physical  repose  and  re- 
cuperation, the  antithesis  and  commonly  received 
antidote  to  fatigue.  It  was,  as  we  are  assured 
by  the  divine  record,  because  the  people  of  Israel 
had  been  slaves  in  Egypt — that  is,  in  bondage 
to  sinful  habits,  propensities,  and  passions,  an 
inordinate  and  debasing  selfhood  from  which 
the  Lord  had  emancipated  them.  The  Sabbath 
was  to  be  kept  to  remind  them  of  their  great  de- 
liverance and  of  the  duties  and  obligations  which 
that  deliverance  imposed.  It  was  a  new  provi- 
sion for  the  new  spiritual  condition  to  which  they 
had  been  advanced. 

105 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

If  mere  physical  repose  and  functional  recuper- 
ation is  not  meant — and  such  it  certainly  could 
not  have  been — we  must  look  elsewhere  for  the 
true  significance  of  a  practice  or  ceremonial  of 
which  our  Father  in  heaven  set  the  first  example 
and  which  He  requires  all  his  children  to  follow. 

Happily,  Paul  the  Apostle  has  thrown  some 
light  upon  this  question,  though  it  was  not  pre- 
cisely the  subject  of  which  he  was  treating  at  the 
time.  In  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  third  and 
fourth  chapters,  he  says: 

While  it  is  said,  To-day  if  ye  will  hear  his  voice,  harden 
not  your  hearts,  as  in  the  provocation. 

For  some,  when  they  had  heard,  did  provoke :  howbeit 
not  all  that  came  out  of  Egypt  by  Moses. 

But  with  whom  was  he  grieved  forty  years?  was  it 
not  with  them  that  had  sinned,  whose  carcasses  fell 
in  the  wilderness? 

And  to  whom  sware  he  that  they  should  not  enter 
into  his  rest,  but  to  them  that  believed  not? 

So  we  see  that  they  could  not  enter  in  because  of  un- 
belief. 

Let  us  therefore  fear,  lest,  a  promise  being  left  us  of  en- 
tering into  his  rest,  any  of  you  should  seem  to  come 
short  of  it. 

For  unto  us  was  the  gospel  preached,  as  well  as  unto 
them:  but  the  word  preached  did  not  profit  them,  not 
being  mixed  with  faith  in  them  that  heard  it. 

For  we  which  have  believed  do  enter  into  rest,  as  he 
said,  As  I  have  sworn  in  my  wrath,  if  they  shall  enter 
into  my  rest:  although  the  works  were  finished  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world. 
106 


Rest  of  the  Sabbath 

For  he  spake  in  a  certain  place  of  the  seventh  day 
on  this  wise,  And  God  did  rest  the  seventh  day  from 
all  his  works. 

And  in  this  place  again,  If  they  shall  enter  into  my 
rest. 

Seeing  therefore  it  remaineth  that  some  must  enter 
therein,  and  they  to  whom  it  was  first  preached  entered 
not  in  because  of  unbelief: 

Again,  he  limiteth  a  certain  day,  saying  in  David, 
To-day,  after  so  long  a  time;  as  it  is  said,  To-day  if 
ye  will  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts. 

For  if  Jesus  had  given  them  rest,  then  would  he  not 
afterward  have  spoken  of  another  day. 

There  remaineth  therefore  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God. 

For  he  that  is  entered  into  his  rest,  he  also  hath  ceased 
from  his  own  works,  as  God  did  from  his. 

Let  us  labor  therefore  to  enter  into  that  rest,  lest  any 
man  fall  after  the  same  example  of  unbelief.* 

Here  it  is  distinctly  stated  that  the  generation 
which  Moses  led  out  of  bondage  in  Egypt  was 
not  permitted  to  enter  into  God's  rest — First,  be- 
cause they  do  always  err  in  their  hearts ;  secondly, 
because  they  have  not  known  God's  ways ;  thirdly, 
because  they  had  sinned;  fourthly,  because  of 
unbelief. 

Then  Paul  adds  that  he  and  his  followers  which 
have  believed  do  enter  into  rest,  and  that  there 
remaineth  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God  "  for  he  that 
is  entered  into  his  rest,  he  also  hath  ceased  from 
his  own  works  as  God  did  from  his." 

*  Paul  to  the  Hebrews  iii.  14. 
107 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

When  Paul  here  speaks  of  himself  and  his 
followers  entering  into  rest  he  says  that  "they 
ceased  from  their  own  works,"  not  as  a  plough- 
man does  at  shut  of  day,  but  "as  God  did  from 
his."  Paul  was  never  more  active,  never  more 
zealous  in  the  calling  wherewith  he  was  called, 
than  at  that  period  of  his  life  when  he  was  inditing 
these  lines  in  commendation  of  the  rest  into  which 
he  and  his  followers  had  entered. 

When  we  regard  —  as  enlightened  theologians 
usually  do — the  bondage  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt, 
referred  to  in  Paul's  exposition,  as  a  bondage  to 
sin,  and  their  deliverance  from  it  as  the  beginning 
of  the  process  of  regeneration,  we  then  begin  to 
comprehend  the  necessity  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  work  of  regeneration  represented  by  the  forty 
years'  struggle  with  trials  and  temptations  in 
the  wilderness,  and  for  a  periodical  withdrawal 
from  worldly  cares  and  from  exposure  to  worldly 
temptations,  and  for  the  consecration  of  a  portion 
of  our  time  and  thoughts  to  the  entire  exclusion 
of  those  distractions. 

The  Lord,  in  excusing  Himself  for  what  He  had 
done  to  and  for  the  children  of  Israel  in  leading 
them  out  of  Egypt  and  giving  them  his  statutes 
and  judgments,  "  which  if  a  man  do  he  shall  live 
by  them,"  added: 

"  Moreover,  also,  I  gave  them  ray  Sabbath  to  be  a 
sign  between  me  and  them  that  they  might  know  that 
I  am  the  Lord  that  sanctify  them." 
T08 


Rest  of  the  Sabbath 

Sanctification,  not  idleness,  was  the  great  and 
the  exclusive  purpose  of  the  Sabbath  and  its  rest. 
Is  not  sanctification  the  purpose  of  all  rest,  and 
is  not  all  rest  a  detachment  from  the  world,  which 
is  only  complete  in  sleep  and  in  death? 

Again,  in  the  twenty-eighth  verse  of  the  fortieth 
chapter  of  the  same  prophet,  he  says : 

'  The  everlasting  God,  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary.  There 
is  no  searching  of  his  understanding.  He  giveth  power 
to  the  faint,  and  to  him  that  hath  no  might  he  increaseth 
strength." 

In  the  fifteenth  verse  of  the  thirtieth  chapter 
of  Isaiah,  the  Lord  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel, 
is  reported  as  saying  : 

"  In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved ;  in  quietness 
and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength :  and  ye  would 
not." 

The  most  compact  definition  of  the  rest  which 
the  Sabbath  was  intended  to  secure  perhaps  is 
given  in  the  fifty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  the 
spirit  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  following  verses : 

"  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  doing  thy  pleasure 
on  my  holy  day,  and  call  the  sabbath  a  delight,  the 
holy  of  Jehovah  honorable;  and  shalt  honor  him,  not 
doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine  own  pleasure, 
nor  speaking  thine  own  words :  then  shalt  thou  be  de- 
lightful to  Jehovah  the  Lord,  and  I  will  cause  thee  to 
ride  upon  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  and  feed  thee 
with  the  heritage  of  Jacob." 
109 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

And  here  we  are  confronted  by  a  serious  and 
pregnant  inquiry.  Is  not  every  incident  of  our 
lives  which  detaches  our  affections  from  this 
world  or  diminishes  the  value  of  all  selfish  pleas- 
ures in  our  eyes  part  of  that  rest  which  the  Sab- 
bath was  intended  to  secure  us? 

Nothing  happens  by  chance.  Nothing  is  ac- 
cidental. Neither  can  we  conceive  of  any  waste 
of  divine  energy.  Everything  that  occurs  we 
must  presume  is  working  the  purposes  of  divine 
love  and  wisdom.  What,  then,  is  the  sanctifying 
purpose  of  the  innumerable  interruptions,  dis- 
appointments, and  defeats  of  which  the  earthly 
lives  of  the  wisest  and  best,  as  well  as  the  weakest 
and  basest,  experience?  What  is  the  compensa- 
tion we  are  to  expect  for  our  ever-recurring  hun- 
ger and  fatigue,  for  the  pains,  the  illnesses,  disas- 
ters in  business,  involuntary  idleness,  unwelcome 
and  inconvenient  claims  upon  our  time,  and  un- 
profitable distractions  which  we  can  neither  avoid 
nor  enjoy?  What  else  but  what  our  Father  in 
heaven  meant  when  He  said  of  the  Israelites  to 
the  prophet: 

"  Moreover  I  gave  them  my  sabbaths,  to  be  a  sign 
between  me  and  them,  that  they  might  know  that  I 
am  the  Lord;  that  I  sanctify  them."* 

What  are  they  but  sabbaths  designed  to  weaken 
or  break  the  hold  of  the  world  upon  us ;  to  impair 

*  Ezekiel  xx.  12. 
110 


The  Allies  of  Sleep 

our  natural  confidence  in  our  self-sufficiency; 
to  give  us  his  rest  from  labors  that  are  too  en- 
grossing and  which  prevent  our  knowing  the 
Lord  who  is  sanctifying  it?  All  trials  and  tribula- 
tions are  messengers  from  heaven  sent  in  love 
and  mercy.  All  of  them,  from  the  least  unto  the 
greatest,  tend  to  weaken  this  world's  hold  upon 
us.  Do  they  not  all,  then,  perform,  in  a  degree 
and  more  or  less  frequently,  what  is  manifestly 
the  one  great  function  of  sleep? 

The  Lord  has  assured  us  that  He  is  always 
knocking  at  every  one's  door  and  waiting  to  be 
asked  to  come  in  and  sup  with  him.  What  are 
any  of  our  tribulations  but  his  knocks  at  our 
door;  his  sabbaths  that  He  wishes  to  sanctify  to 
us?  We  are  prostrated  by  disease,  with  alarming 
uncertainties  as  to  its  final  result.  How  rapidly 
all  our  worldly  interests  sink  in  value  as  those 
uncertainties  increase;  how  soon  all  our  worldly 
ambitions  pass  from  our  thoughts  like  a  vision 
of  the  night;  how  readily  would  we  exchange 
all  our  wealth  or  honors  for  the  robust  health  of 
the  coal-heaver  or  the  hod-carrier.  The  world's 
pomps  and  vanities  shrink  under  trials  only  less 
than  in  sleep,  when  they  entirely  disappear  for 
a  season;  or  in  death,  when  they  disappear  al- 
together. 

May  it  not  be  fairly  questioned  whether  the 
perusal  of  a  fine  poem  or  romance,  or  the  con- 
templation of  a  masterpiece  of  art  of  any  kind, 
has  ever  a  loftier  mission  than  to  release  us  for 

in 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

a  time  from  this  thraldom  of  our  daily  cares; 
to  supply  us  with  new  and  captivating  ideals,  and 
make  us  realize  our  capacity  for  the  enjoyment 
of  higher  modes  of  existence  and  nobler  pleasures? 
In  other  words,  are  they  not  handmaidens  of  sleep? 
But  more  on  this  subject  presently. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Prominence  given  to  the  morning  hour  in  the  Bible, 
and  its  spiritual  significance. 

I  HAVE  already  referred  to  the  great  changes, 
physical,  mental,  and  moral,  which  we  appear  to 
undergo  during  the  intervals  of  sleep. 

"  A  man,"  says  Dr.  Bushnell,  "  must  be  next  to 
a  devil  who  wakes  angry.  After  his  unconscious 
Sabbath  he  begins  another  day,  and  every  day 
is  Monday.  How  beautifully  thus  we  are  drawn, 
by  this  kind  economy  of  sleep,  to  the  exercise 
of  all  good  dispositions!  The  acrid  and  sour 
ingredients  of  evil,  the  grudges,  the  wounds  of 
feeling,  the  hypochondriac  suspicions,  the  black 
torments  of  misanthropy,  the  morose  fault-find- 
ings, are  so  far  tempered  and  sweetened  by  God's 
gentle  discipline  of  sleep  that  we  do  not  even  con- 
ceive how  demoniacally  bitter  they  would  be  if 
no  such  kind  interruptions  broke  their  spell." 

All  these  experiences  are  doubtless  more  or 
less  familiar  to  everybody ;  and  they  give  a  peculiar 
significance  and  importance  to  many  of  the  most 
momentous  spiritual  epochs  in  the  history  of  our 
race. 

8  113 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

It  will  be  a  careless  reader  of  the  Bible  who 
will  not  be  struck  by  the  frequency  with  which 
epochal  events  are  there  reported  to  have  occurred 
in  the  morning,  and,  in  many  instances,  when 
to  all  human  appearances  there  could  be  no  reason 
for  naming  any  time  at  all  for  their  occurrence, 
and  still  less  for  their  occurrence  at  the  time  named. 
The  reader  will  do  well  to  note  the  extreme  im- 
portance of  the  communication  in  every  instance 
here  cited. 

We  are  told  that  Jacob  awoke  out  of  his  sleep 
and  said :  "  Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this  place ;  and 
I  knew  it  not.  And  he  was  afraid,  and  said, 
How  dreadful  is  this  place.  This  is  none  other 
than  the  house  of  God  and  this  is  the  gate  of 
heaven."* 

"  The  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Rise  up  early  in  the 
morning,  and  stand  before  Pharaoh;  lo,  he  cometh 
forth  to  the  water;  and  say  unto  him,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  Let  my  people  go."| 

It  was  at  midnight  that  the  Lord  smote  all  the 
first-born  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  but  the  houses 
of  the  children  of  Israel  were  passed  over.  "  There 
shall  no  plague  be  upon  you  to  destroy  you,  when 
I  smite  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  this  day  shall  be 
unto  you  for  a  memorial  and  ye  shall  keep  it  a 
feast  to  the  Lord."% 

On  this  fateful  night  it  was  ordered  that  none 

*  Genesis  xxviii.  16-18.  t  Exodus  viii.  2O. 

J  Exodus  xii.  14. 

114 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

of  the  Israelites  were  to  go  out  of  the  door  of  his 
house  until  the  morning* 

The  same  night  Pharaoh  rose  and  all  his  ser- 
vants and  all  the  Egyptians,  and  he  called  up 
Moses  and  Aaron  by  night,  and  said :  "  Rise  up, 
get  you  forth  from  among  my  people,  both  ye 
and  the  children  of  Israel :  and  go  serve  the  Lord 
as  ye  have  said. "I  So  "it  came  to  pass  at  the 
end  of  four  hundred  and  thirty  years,  even  the 
self-same  day  it  came  to  pass  that  all  the  hosts  of 
the  Lord  went  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  It 
is  a  night  of  watching  unto  the  Lord  for  bringing 
them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt :  this  same  night  is 
a  night  of  watching  unto  the  Lord  for  all  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  throughout  their  generations." 

As  nothing  in  the  divine  economy  is  accidental, 
nor  anything  in  God's  word  which  has  not  a  mes- 
sage for  us,  we  are  forced  to  assume  that  it  was 
not  by  accident  that  the  hour  of  midnight  was 
chosen  to  smite  the  first-born  of  the  Egyptians 
for  their  obduracy;  that  the  Israelites  were  for- 
bidden to  leave  their  houses  that  night;  and  that 
Pharaoh  called  upon  Moses  and  Aaron  at  night 
to  rise  up,  take  his  people,  and  go  and  serve  the 
Lord  as  he  wished.  Regarded  as  an  ordinary 
concession  from  a  sovereign  to  a  refractory  class 
of  his  subjects,  the  wonder  is  why  this  judgment 
upon  the  Egyptians  and  this  deliverance  of  the 
Israelites  should  have  been  wrought  in  the  night, 

*  Exodus  xii.  22.  t  Exodus  xii.  31. 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

when  to  the  natural  eye  there  appears  no  reason 
why  it  might  not  have  been  conducted  more  con- 
veniently for  all  parties  by  daylight. 

When  Pharaoh  and  his  host  pursued  the  children 
of  Israel  and  went  in  after  them  into  the  midst  of 
the  sea,  "it  came  to  pass  in  the  morning  watch 
that  the  Lord  looked  forth  upon  the  host  of  the 
Egyptians  through  the  pillar  of  fire  and  of  cloud 
and  discomfited  the  host  of  the  Egyptians.  .  .  . 
And  Moses  stretched  forth  his  hand  over  the  sea, 
and  the  sea  returned  in  its  strength  when  the 
morning  appeared.  .  .  .  And  the  waters  returned 
and  covered  the  chariots  and  the  horsemen,  even 
all  the  host  of  Pharaoh  that  went  after  them  into 
the  sea.  There  remained  not  so  much  as  one 
of  them.  .  .  .  And  Israel  saw  the  great  work 
which  the  Lord  did  upon  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
people  feared  the  Lord;  and  they  believed  in  the 
Lord  and  in  his  servant  Moses." 

When  the  children  of  Israel  were  being  led  out 
of  their  bondage  to  the  Egyptians  "The  Lord 
went  before  them  by  day  in  a  pillar  of  cloud,  to 
lead  them  the  way;  and  by  night  in  a  pillar  of 
fire,  to  give  them  light;  to  go  by  day  and  night. 

"  He  took  not  away  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day, 
nor  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  from  before  the 
people."* 

The  night  was  no  more  to  be  wasted  than  the 

*  Exodus  xiii.  22. 

116 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

day.  But  how  was  it  to  be  improved?  Not  merely 
by  fleeing  from  Egyptians,  but  from  their  bond- 
age to  sins  they  were  leaving  behind  them. 

In  what  way,  then,  did  they  prosecute  their 
journey  by  night?  Of  course  they  could  not 
march  day  and  night.  That  was  physically  im- 
possible. Besides,  we  read  continually  of  their 
camping  in  different  places.  They  camped  at 
Elim ;  they  were  a  long  time  camped  at  Rephidim. 
Then  they  were  camped  before  Mount  Sinai,  where 
they  received  through  Moses  the  Commandments 
and  a  code  of  laws.  There  they  tarried  a  long 
time.  After  many  years  they  abode  in  Kadish, 
where  Miriam  died  and  was  buried.  Later  at 
Mount  Hor  they  mourned  thirty  days  for  Aaron, 
who  died  and  was  buried  there. 

But  the  Lord  went  before  them  all  this  time. 
His  work  with  them  was  not  suspended  by  night 
any  more  than  by  day. 

Who  can  read  these  citations,  thus  grouped 
together,  without  wondering  that  the  time  when 
the  events  to  which  they  refer  occurred  is  so  uni- 
formly given,  when,  to  all  appearance,  it  is  of 
no  earthly  importance?  The  thoughtful  reader 
will  be  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  data  in 
question  were  either  idle  and  superfluous  or  that 
the  events  referred  to  had  some  essential  and 
inevitable  relation  to  the  particular  time  of  their 
occurrence. 

The  first  theory  can  only  be  accepted  by  those 
who  dispute  the  supernatural  origin  of  the  Word. 
117 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Those  who  accept  the  other  theory  and  have  read 
these  verses,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  divining 
what,  in  the  eyes  of  the  writer,  that  essential  and 
inevitable  relation  is. 

When  the  children  of  Israel  murmured  against 
Moses  and  Aaron  and  pined  in  the  wilderness 
for  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  the  Lord  promised 
Moses  to  rain  bread  from  heaven  for  them. 

"  And  Moses  and  Aaron  said  unto  all  the  children 
of  Israel,  At  even,  then  ye  shall  know  that  the  Lord 
hath  brought  you  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt. 

"  And  in  the  morning,  then  ye  shall  see  the  glory  of 
God."* 

The  Israelites,  we  are  told,  subsisted  for  the 
next  forty  years  of  their  wanderings  in  the  wilder- 
ness upon  this  manna  sent  from  heaven.  They 
were  instructed  to  gather  it,  every  man  according 
to  his  eating,  but  said  Moses,  "  Let  no  man  leave 
of  it  until  the  morning."  This  bread  sent  them 
from  heaven  was  to  be  eaten  at  night;  "And  in 
the  morning,"  adds  Moses,  "  ye  shall  see  the  glory 
of  God." 

The  Lord's  bread  is  the  bread  of  life — bread 
for  the  soul  as  well  as  the  body. 

No  circumstance  connected  with  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  Ten  Commandments  can  be  treated 
with  indifference  or  as  of  secondary  importance. 
Here  is  the  account  of  that  event  as  recorded  in 

*  Exodus  xvi.  6,  7. 

118 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

the  twenty  -  fourth  chapter  of  Exodus,  and  the 
reader  will  please  note  the  time  selected  for  the 
most  important  message  perhaps  that  was  ever 
given  to  our  race: 

"  The  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Hew  thee  two  tables 
of  stone  like  unto  the  first:  and  I  will  write  upon  the 
tables  the  words  that  were  on  the  first  tables,  which 
thou  breakest.  And  be  ready  63;  the  morning,  and 
come  up  in  the  morning  unto  Mount  Sinai  and  present 
thyself  there  to  me  on  the  top  of  the  Mount.  .  .  .  And 
he  hewed  two  tables  of  stone  like  unto  the  first ;  and 
Moses  rose  up  early  in  the  morning  and  went  up  unto 
Mount  Sinai,  as  the  Lord  had  commanded  him,  and 
took  in  his  hand  two  tables  of  stone.  And  the  Lord 
descended  in  the  cloud,  and  stood  with  him  there,  and 
proclaimed  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

When  the  Lord  gave  Moses  the  tables  of  stone 
and  the  law  and  the  commandment  that  he  might 
teach  them,  "  Moses  wrote  all  the  words  of  the  Lord, 
and  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  builded  an 
altar  under  the  mount,  and  twelve  pillars,  accord- 
ing to  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  .  .  .  And  he  took 
the  book  of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the  audience 
of  the  people:  and  they  said,  All  that  the  Lord 
hath  spoken  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient."* 

When  Hannah,  and  Elkanah  her  husband, 
went  to  the  high-priest  Eli,  and  obtained  his  bless- 
ing upon  their  petition  that  she  might  become  a 
mother,  "  her  countenance  was  no  more  sad.  And 

*  Exodus  xxiv.  4-7. 
119 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

they  rose  up  in  the  morning  early,  and  worshipped 
before  the  Lord,  and  returned  to  their  house  to 
Ramah."* 

When  the  Philistines  insisted  that  David  should 
not  go  down  with  them  to  the  battle,  Achish  told 
David :  "  I  know  that  thou  art  good  in  my  sight, 
as  an  angel  of  God;  notwithstanding  the  princes 
of  the  Philistines  have  said,  He  shall  not  go  up 
with  us  to  the  battle.  Wherefore  now  rise  up 
early  in  the  morning  with  the  servants  of  thy 
lord  that  are  come  with  me:  and  as  soon  as  ye 
be  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  have  light,  depart. 
So  David  rose  up  early,  he  and  his  men,  to  de- 
part in  the  morning,  to  return  into  the  land  of  the 
Philistines.! 

We  are  told  that  "David's  heart  smote  him 
after  that  he  had  numbered  the  people.  And 
when  David  rose  up  in  the  morning,  the  word 
of  the  Lord  came  unto  the  prophet  Gad,  Da- 
vid's seer,  saying,  Go  and  speak  unto  David, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord:  I  offer  thee  three  things; 
choose  thee  one  of  them,  that  I  may  do  it  unto 
thee."J 

When  the  Philistines  captured  the  ark  of  God 
from  the  Hebrews,  they  brought  it  into  the  house 
of  Dagon  and  set  it  by  Dagon.  Early  the  follow- 
ing morning,  Dagon  was  fallen  upon  his  face 
to  the  ground  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord.  The 
Philistines  then  sat  Dagon  again  in  his  place 

*  I  Samuel  i.  19.  t  I  Samuel  xxix.  9. 

J  2  Samuel  xxiv.   10. 

120 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

beside  the  ark  of  God,  "  and  when '  they  arose 
early  on  the  morrow  morning,  behold  Dagon  was 
fallen  upon  his  face  to  the  ground  before  the  ark 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  head  of  Dagon  and  both  the 
palms  of  his  hands  lay  cut  off  upon  the  threshold, 
only  the  stump  of  Dagon  was  left  him."* 

In  both  these  instances,  the  prostration  of  Dagon, 
and  finally  his  mutilation,  occurred  in  the  night- 
time, and  when  the  Hebrews,  to  whose  advan- 
tage the  idol's  overthrow  inured,  were  presumably 
asleep. 

One  of  the  most  important  and  pathetic  colloquies 
with  a  sovereign  ever  reported  was  that  which 
Samuel  the  Prophet  had  with  Saul,  the  King  of 
Israel,  because  of  his  disobedience,  finally  result- 
ing in  Saul's  downfall  and  the  establishment  of 
the  dynasty  of  David,  from  which  Jesus  the  Christ 
was  begotten. 

Saul  had  offended  the  Lord  "  for  having  turned 
back  from  following  and  performing  his  com- 
mandments." His  offence  was  reported  in  the 
night  to  Samuel,  who  rose  early  to  meet  Saul 
in  the  morning. 

"  Saul  said  to  him,  Blessed  be  thou  of  the  Lord :  I 
have  performed  the  commandment  of  the  Lord.  And 
Samuel  said,  What  meaneth  then  this  bleating  of  the 
sheep  in  mine  ears,  and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen  which 
I  hear?  And  Saul  said,  They  have  brought  them  from 
the  Amalekites:  for  the  people  spared  the  best  of  the 

*  I  Samuel  v.  5. 
121 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sheep  and  of  the  oxen,  to  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord  thy 
God;  and  the  rest  we  have  utterly  destroyed. 

"  Then  Samuel  said  unto  Saul,  Stay,  and  I  will  tell 
thee  what  the  Lord  hath  said  to  me  this  night.  And 
he  said  unto  him,  Say  on.  And  Samuel  said,  Though 
thou  wast  little  in  thine  own  sight,  wast  thou  not  made 
the  head  of  the  tribes  of  Israel?  And  the  Lord  anointed 
thee  king  over  Israel ;  and  the  Lord  sent  thee  on  a  journey, 
and  said,  Go  and  utterly  destroy  the  sinners  the  Amale- 
kites,  and  fight  against  them  until  they  be  consumed. 
Wherefore  then  didst  thou  not  obey  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  but  didst  fly  upon  the  spoil,  and  didst  that  which 
was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord?  And  Saul  said  unto 
Samuel,  Yea,  I  have  obeyed  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  and 
have  gone  the  way  which  the  Lord  sent  me,  and  have 
brought  Agag  the  king  of  Amalek,  and  have  utterly 
destroyed  the  Amalekites.  But  the  people  took  of  the 
spoil,  sheep  and  oxen,  the  chief  of  the  devoted  things, 
to  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  in  Gilgal.  And 
Samuel  said,  Hath  the  Lord  as  great  delight  in  burnt 
offerings  and  sacrifices  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of  the 
Lord?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and 
to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams.  For  rebellion  is  as 
the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  stubbornness  is  as  idolatry 
and  teraphim.  Because  thou  hast  rejected  the  word 
of  the  Lord,  he  hath  also  rejected  thee  from  being  king. 
And  Saul  said  unto  Samuel,  I  have  sinned :  for  I  have 
transgressed  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  and  thy 
words:  because  I  feared  the  people,  and  obeyed  their 
voice.  Now  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  pardon  my  sin, 
and  turn  again  with  me,  that  I  may  worship  the  Lord. 
And  Samuel  said  unto  Saul,  I  will  not  return  with  thee : 
for  thou  hast  rejected  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
Lord  hath  rejected  thee  from  being  king  over  Israel." 
122 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

The  prophet  Ezekiel  tells  us  that  "it  came  to 
pass  in  the  twelfth  year  of  captivity,  that  one 
that  had  escaped  out  of  Jerusalem  came  unto  me 
saying,  The  city  is  smitten.  Now  the  hand  of 
the  Lord  had  been  upon  me  in  the  evening,  before 
he  that  was  escaped  came;  and  he  had  opened 
my  mouth,  until  he  came  to  me  in  the  morning; 
and  my  mouth  was  opened,  and  I  was  no  more 
dumb."* 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  most  impressive 
message  ever  delivered  by  Ezekiel.  It  was  to  show 
how  and  by  what  tribulations  men  who  with  their 
mouth  show  much  love  but  their  heart  goeth  after 
their  gain,  are  sometimes  made  to  know  that  the 
author  of  such  messages  was  the  Lord. 

It  is  important  to  notice  that  Ezekiel's  mouth 
was  opened,  and  he  was  no  more  dumb  in  the 
morning  because  the  hand  of  the  Lord  had  been 
upon  him  in  the  evening. 

"It  is  of  the  Lord's  mercies,"  says  the  prophet, 
"  that  we  are  not  consumed,  because  his  com- 
passions fail  not.  They  are  new  every  morning; 
great  is  thy  faithfulness. "  t 

King  David  sings: 

"  My  voice  shalt  thou  hear  in  the  morning,  0  Lord, 
in  the  morning  will  I  direct  my  prayers  unto  thee  and 
will  keep  watch.  "J 

*  Ezekiel  xxxiv.  21.  t  Lamentations  iii.  22,  23. 

J  Psalm  v. 

123 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

"  My  soul  fleeth  unto  the  Lord  before  the  morning 
watch;  I  say,  before  the  morning  watch."  * 

"  Thou  hast  proved  and  visited  my  heart  in  the  night 
season;  thou  hast  tried  me  and  shalt  find  no  weakness 
in  me :  for  I  am  utterly  purposed  that  my  mouth  shall 
not  offend."  t 

"  Sing  praises  unto  the  Lord,  0  ye  saints  of  his,  and 
give  thanks  to  his  holy  name.  For  his  anger  is  but 
for  a  moment ;  In  his  favor  is  life :  Weeping  may  tarry 
for  the  night,  But  joy  cometh  in  the  morning."  J 

"  As  for  me,  let  me  behold  thy  face  in  righteousness : 
Let  me  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake,  with  thy  likeness."  § 

John,  the  child  of  Elizabeth,  was  proclaimed 
by  his  father  Zacharias  as  "the  prophet  of  the 
Highest,"  who  was  to  go  "before  the  face  of  the 
Lord  to  prepare  his  ways  and  give  knowledge  of 
salvation  unto  his  people,"  "whereby,"  he  adds, 
"the  Day  Spring  from  on  high  hath  visited  us, 
to  shine  upon  them  that  sit  in  darkness  and  the 
shadow  of  death;  to  guide  our  feet  in  the  way 
of  peace."  || 

So  in  Job :  "  Hast  thou  commanded  the  morning 
since  thy  days  began,  and  caused  the  day  spring 
to  know  its  place;  that  it  might  take  hold  of  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  the  wicked  be  shaken  out 
of  it."f 

Why  on  both  of  these  most  important  occasions 
is  such  importance  given  to  the  dawn  or  spring- 
time of  the  day? 

*  Psalm  cxxx.         t  Psalm  xvii.  3.    t  Psalm  xxx.  4,  5. 

§  Psalm  xvii.  15.     ||  Luke  i.  79.         1"  Job  xxxviii.  12. 

124 


Morning  Hours  in  the  Bible 

Does  it  mean  anything  more  to  us  than  any 
other  part  of  the  day  would  have  meant  to  us? 

It  was  in  reference  to  precisely  this  event  that 
the  Angel  Gabriel  said  to  Mary,  "  No  word  from 
God  shall  be  void  of  power."* 

The  Lord  Jesus  was  buried  in  the  evening  and 
was  raised  on  the  third  day  in  the  morning. 

It  was  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  that  Mary 
Magdalen  came  early  while  it  was  yet  dark  to  the 
sepulchre  and  saw  the  stone  had  been  taken  away 
from  the  sepulchre.  This  led  to  her  being  the 
first  to  see  Jesus  and  to  receive  the  first  communica- 
tion that  was  made  by  Him  to  the  human  race 
after  his  crucifixion,  f 

It  was  early  in  the  morning  that  Jesus  came 
into  the  temple,  and  all  the  people  came  to  Him, 
and  He  sat  down  and  taught  them.  { 

To  the  angel  of  the  church  at  Pergamum — "  To 
him  that  overcometh,  to  him  will  I  give  of  the 
hidden  manna  and  I  will  give  him  a  white  stone, 
and  upon  the  stone  a  new  name  written  which 
no  one  knoweth  but  he  that  receiveth  it.  And 
I  will  give  him  the  morning  star."§ 

By  the  Morning  Star,  the  Lord  himself,  of  course, 
is  meant.  || 

*  Luke  i.  37.     t  Mark  xvi.  2.     J  John  viii.  2.      §  Rev.  ii.  12. 

II  "  I  am  the  root  and  offspring  of  David,  the  bright  and 
Morning  Star." — Apoc.  xxii.  16. 

"  The  God  of  Israel  said,  the  Rock  of  Israel  spake  to  me  : 
one  that  ruleth  over  men  righteously,  that  ruleth  in  the  fear 
of  God.  He  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  morning  when  the 
sun  riseth,  a  morning  without  clouds." — 2  Samuel  xxiii.  3, 4. 

125 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Nicodemus,  a  man  of  the  Pharisees  and  a 
ruler  of  the  Jews,  came  to  Jesus  63;  night  to 
ask  how  a  man  could  be  born  again  when  he  is 
old.* 

Subsequently  at  the  Crucifixion,  and  when 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  had  obtained  permission  of 
Pilate  to  take  away  the  body  of  Jesus,  "there 
came  also  Nicodemus  (he  who  at  the  first  came 
to  him  by  night),  bringing  a  mixture  of  myrrh 
and  aloes." 

It  is  significant  that  the  seemingly  unimpor- 
tant fact  that  the  first  visit  of  Nicodemus  to  Je- 
sus was  63?  night  should  be  here  recalled,  when 
Nicodemus  appears  to  assist  at  our  Saviour's 
burial. 

When  the  Lord  promised  Solomon  long  life  and 
riches  because,  instead  of  asking  for  them,  he 
had  asked  for  an  understanding  heart  to  judge 
the  people  and  discern  between  good  and  evil, 
which  prayer  also  was  gratified,  Solomon  awoke, 
and  behold  it  was  a  dream  in  the  night.] 

"  I  will  praise  the  Lord,  who  hath  given  me  counsel; 
yea,  my  reins  instruct  me  in  the  night  seasons."  J 

"  Weeping  may  tarry  for  the  night,  but  joy  cometh 
in  the  morning."  § 

Though  upon  a  mystery  of  this  character  the 
Word  is  the  highest  authority  that  can  be  appealed 

*  John  iii.  4.  t  l  Kings  iii.  15. 

J  Psalm  xvi.  7.  §  Psalm  xxx.  5. 

126 


Morning  Dreams 

to,  yet,  unless  confirmed  to  some  extent  by  the 
experience  and  judgment  of  men  making  no  claim 
to  supernatural  inspiration,  it  might  fail  to  pro- 
duce conviction  even  in  minds  professing  the 
most  absolute  faith  in  revelation. 

Of  such  confirmation  there  is  a  great  abundance, 
but  here  it  will  be  necessary  to  refer  only  to  three 
or  four,  but  such  as  will  make  up  in  weight  for 
numbers. 

Dante  speaks  of 

"...  the  hour  when  her  sad  lay  begins, 
The  little  swallow,  near  unto  the  morning, 
Perchance  in  memory  of  her  former  woes, 
And  when  the  mind  of  man  a  wanderer  is 
More  from  the  flesh  and  less  by  thought  imprisoned 
Almost  prophetic  in  its  vision  is." 

This  theory  of  morning  dreams  is  in  accord 
with,  and  no  doubt  an  allusion  to,  what  some 
call  a  superstition,  but  which  would  be  more  re- 
spectfully described  as  a  conviction  among  the 
ancients  that  somnium  post  somnum  efficax  est 
atque  eveniet  sive  bonum  sit  sive  malum;  a  con- 
viction which  Ovid  perpetuated  in  the  following 
lines : 

"  Namque  sub  Aurora  dormitante  lucerna 
Somnia  quo  cerni  tempore  vera  solent."t 

The  truth  of  morning  dreams,  as  affirmed  in  the 
lines  above  cited  from  Dante,  was  the  happy  in- 

*  Purgatorio  ix.  ii.  t  Heroides  Epist.  xix.  195. 

127 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

spiration  of  the  following  lines  of  the  late  T.  W. 
Parsons,  written  on  the  death  of  his  wife's  cousin : 

"  PRESSO  AL  MATTING  DEL  VOR  SI  SOGNA.—  Dante 

"  Love,  let's  be  thankful  we  are  past  the  time 
When  griefs  are  comfortless;  and,  though  we  mourn, 
Feel  in  our  sorrow  something  now  sublime, 
And  in  each  tear  the  sweetness  of  a  kiss. 
Weep  on  and  smile  then:  for  we  know  in  this,  0 
Our  immortality,  that  nothing  dies 
Within  our  hearts,  but  something  new  is  born; 
And  what  is  roughly  taken  from  our  eyes 
Gently  comes  back  in  visions  of  the  morn 
When  dreams  are  truest." 

Milton,  invoking  his  heavenly  muse,  Ourania, 
says: 

"  On  evil  days  though  fallen  and  evil  tongues, 
In  darkness  and  with  darkness  compassed  round, 
And  solitude;  yet  not  alone  while  thou 
Visit'st  my  slumbers  nightly  or  when  morn 
Purples  the  east." 

Pope,  in  his  Temple  of  Fame,  founded   upon 
Chaucer's  House  of  Fame,  says: 

"  A  balmy  sleep  had  charmed  my  cares  to  rest, 
And  love  itself  was  banished  from  my  breast 
(What  time  the  morn  mysterious  visions  brings 
While  purer  slumbers  spread  their  golden  wings}; 
A  train  of  phantoms  in  wild  order  rose, 
And  joined,  this  intellectual  scene  compose." 
128 


/Eneas  and  the  River  God 

Drydcn,  in  his  version  of  The  Tale  of  the  Nun's 
Priest,  says: 

"  Believe  me,  madam,  morning  dreams  foreshow 
Th'  event  of  things,  and  future  weal  and  woe." 

Virgil  tells  us  that  when  his  hero  ^Eneas  was 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  Roman  Empire  in 
Latium  and  was  much  disturbed  by  the  anxieties 
which  beset  him,  having  laid  down  his  weary 
limbs  to  give  them  some  long-needed  rest,  Tiber, 
the  river  god,  appeared  to  him,  encouraged  him 
not  to  flinch  from  his  purpose,  not  to  be  dismayed 
by  threats  of  hostility,  but  with  the  first  setting 
stars  to  offer  prayers  to  Juno  and  by  suppliant 
vows  vanquish  her  resentment  and  threats,  assur- 
ing him  finally  of  his  success.  When  the  river 
god  had  finished  he  hid  himself  in  the  deep  lake, 
while  ./Eneas  at  the  dawn  of  day  awoke  and  pro- 
ceeded to  put  up  to  him  a  prayer  of  thanks,  with 
promises  to  rely  upon  his  aid  and  to  sacrifice  upon 
his  altars. 

It  is  a  very  curious  fact,  and  very  proper  to  be 
noted  in  this  place,  that  morning  prayers  and 
adorations  among  the  early  Romans  were  put  up 
to  the  celestial  gods,  and  those  of  the  evening  to 
the  infernal. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Our  external  and  our  internal  memory — Coleridge's  "  body 
terrestrial"  and  "body  celestial  " — The  operations  of 
our  non-phenomenal  life  presumably  as  important  as 
those  of  our  phenomenal  life. 


WHENEVER  we  seriously  exercise  our  reason- 
ing faculties  we  abstract  ourselves  from  the  phe- 
nomenal world,  and  just  in  proportion  to  the 
profundity  of  our  thought,  or  the  degree  of  our 
interest  in  the  subject  of  our  meditations,  will  be 
the  completeness  of  our  abstraction.  Few  realize 
that  the  mind  while  in  that  state  has  nothing 
more  to  do  with  the  external  world  than  a  mill 
has  to  do  with  producing,  shelling,  or  transporting 
the  grain  that  is  thrown  into  its  hopper.  The 
mill  only  grinds  what  is  put  into  it.  The  rapidity 
of  the  mind's  action  is  so  great  that  we  have  no 
faculties  capable  of  perceiving  when  the  several 
operations  of  the  mind,  memory,  and  will  begin 
and  end  in  reaching  any  conclusion.  The  fingers 
of  the  musician  seem  to  run  over  the  keys  of  the 
piano  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning,  but  the  will, 
mind,  and  memory  act  independently  at  every 
note.  The  will  indicates  the  note  to  be  produced, 
the  memory  reports  the  key  that  produces  that 
130 


Greek  Temples  of  the  Muses 

note,  the  mind  selects  the  proper  finger  and  directs 
that  note  to  be  struck.  There  the  mind  would 
rest  if  the  will  and  the  memory  did  not  suggest 
another  note.  This  process  is  repeated  through- 
out the  score,  until  the  tune  is  finished.  The 
mind  is  a  servant  of  the  will,  of  which  the  memory 
is  a  messenger.  Through  them  the  mind  is  oc- 
cupied with  phenomenal  life.  Suspend  the  action 
of  the  external  memory,  however,  and  then  the 
mind  works  independently  of  the  external  or  phe- 
nomenal world,  and  that  we  suppose  to  be  its  con- 
dition in  sleep. 

"  Near  the  Temple  of  the  Muses,  built  by  Arda- 
tus,  son  of  Vulcan/'  Pausanias  tells  us,  "  there  is 
an  ancient  altar  which  Ardatus  is  reported  to  have 
dedicated.  Upon  this  altar  they  sacrifice  to  the 
Muses  and  to  Sleep,  asserting  that  Sleep,  above 
all  the  deities,  is  friendly  to  the  Muses." 

Some  modern  metaphysicians  insist  that  we 
are  endowed  with  a  subjective  and  objective  mind 
and  corresponding  memories.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  two  memories  would  be  that  we  should 
employ  the  word  "  memory "  when  we  wish  to 
designate  the  subjective  intelligence,  and  the 
word  "  recollection "  to  designate  the  objective 
intelligence.  Memory  in  this  sense  is  the  active 
retention  and  distinct  recognition  of  past  ideas 
in  the  mind,  while  recollection  is  the  power  of 
recalling — of  re-collecting  ideas  which  have  once 
been  in  the  mind  but  are  for  the  time  being  for- 
gotten. 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Subjective  memory  is  regarded  as  retaining  all 
ideas,  however  superficially  they  may  have  been 
impressed  on  the  objective  mind,  and  it  admits  of 
no  variation  of  power  in  individuals.* 

This  notion  of  a  subjective  memory  corresponds 
in  the  main  with  what  Sir  William  Hamilton  des- 
ignated as  "mental  latency,"  holding  that  all 
recollection  consisted  in  rescuing  from  the  store- 
house of  latent  memory  some  part  of  its  treasure. 
He  assumed  latent  memory  to  be  perfect,  but 
while  he  considered  it  a  normal  mental  process 
to  elevate  a  part  of  the  latent  treasures  of  the 
mind  above  the  plane  of  consciousness,  he  rec- 
ognizes the  fact  that  it  is  only  under  the  most 
abnormal  conditions  that  the  whole  content  of 
the  magazine  of  latent  intelligence  can  be  brought 
to  light.  He  says : 

"  The  second  degree  of  latency  exists  when  the  mind 
contains  certain  systems  of  knowledge  or  certain  habits 
of  action  which  it  is  wholly  unconscious  of  possessing 
in  its  ordinary  state,  but  which  are  revealed  to  con- 
sciousness in  certain  extraordinary  exaltations  of  its 
powers.  The  evidence  on  this  point  shows  that  the 
mind  frequently  contains  whole  systems  of  knowledge 
which,  though  in  our  normal  state  they  may  have  faded 
into  absolute  oblivion,  may,  in  certain  abnormal  states 
— as  madness,  febrile  delirium,  somnambulism,  cata- 
lepsy, etc. — flash  into  luminous  consciousness,  and 
even  throw  into  the  shade  of  unconsciousness  those 

*  A  Scientific  Demonstration  of  the  Future  Life,  by 
Thomas  J.  Hudson,  p.  212. 

132 


The  Dual  Memory 

other  systems  by  which  they  had  for  a  long  period  been 
eclipsed,  and  even  extinguished.  For  example,  there 
are  cases  in  which  the  extinct  memory  of  whole  lan- 
guages was  suddenly  restored,  and — what  is  even  still 
more  remarkable — in  which  the  faculty  was  exhibited 
of  accurately  repeating,  in  known  or  unknown  tongues, 
passages  which  were  never  within  the  grasp  of  con- 
scious memory  in  the  normal  state.  This  degree,  this 
phenomenon  of  latency,  is  one  of  the  most  marvellous 
in  the  whole  compass  of  philosophy." 

He  then  cites  some  most  remarkable  instances 
demonstrative  of  the  perfection  of  subjective 
memory. 

Both  of  these  philosophers  were,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  indebted,  no  doubt,  for  what- 
ever is  true — and  there  is  much  in  both  that  is 
true — to  Swedenborg.  His  theory  of  a  dual  mem- 
ory is  more  profound,  more  philosophical,  and 
more  comprehensive  than  either.  He  says: 

"  It  is  scarce  known  to  any  one  at  this  day,  that  every 
man  has  two  memories — one  exterior,  the  other  interior ; 
and  that  the  exterior  is  proper  to  his  body,  but  the  in- 
terior proper  to  his  spirit.  .  .  . 

"  These  two  memories  are  altogether  distinct  from 
each  other;  to  the  exterior  memory,  which  is  proper 
to  man  during  his  life  in  the  world,  appertain  all  ex- 
pressions by  language,  also  all  objects  of  which  the 
senses  take  cognizance,  and  likewise  the  sciences  which 
relate  to  the  world  :  to  the  interior  memory  appertain  the 
ideas  of  spirit,  which  are  of  the  interior  sight,  and  all 
rational  things,  from  the  ideas  whereof  thought  itself 

133 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

exists.  That  these  things  are  distinct  from  each  other 
is  unknown  to  man,  as  well  because  he  does  not  reflect 
thereupon,  as  because  he  is  incorporate,  and  cannot 
so  easily  withdraw  his  mind  from  corporeal  things. 

"  Hence  it  is  that  men,  during  their  life  in  the  body, 
cannot  discourse  with  each  other  but  by  languages 
distinguished  into  articulate  sounds,  and  cannot  un- 
derstand each  other  unless  they  are  acquainted  with 
those  languages;  the  reason  is,  because  this  is  done 
from  the  exterior  memory ;  whereas,  spirits  *  converse 
with  each  other  by  a  universal  language  distinguished 
into  ideas,  of  their  thought,  and  thus  can  converse  with 
every  spirit,  of  whatsoever  language  or  nation  he  may 
have  been;  because  this  is  done  from  the  interior  mem- 
ory; every  man,  immediately  after  death,  comes  into 
the  comprehension  of  this  universal  language,  because 
he  comes  into  this  interior  memory,  which  is  adapted 
to  his  spirit. 

"  The  speech  of  words,  as  just  intimated,  is  the  speech 
proper  to  man;  and  indeed,  to  his  corporeal  memory; 
but  a  speech  consisting  of  ideas  of  thought  is  the  speech 
proper  to  spirits;  and,  indeed,  to  the  interior  memory, 
which  is  the  memory  of  spirits.  It  is  not  known  to 
men  that  they  possess  this  interior  memory,  because 
the  memory  of  particular  or  material  things,  which  is 
corporeal,  is  accounted  every  thing,  and  darkens  that 
which  is  interior;  when,  nevertheless,  without  interior 
memory,  which  is  proper  to  the  spirit,  man  would  not 
be  able  to  think  at  all. 

*  "Spiritus  inter  se  loquantur  per  linguam  universalem, 
in  ideas,  quales  sunt  ipsius  cogitationis,  distinctam  et  sic 
quod  conversari  possint  cum  unoquovis  spiritu  cujuscumque 
linguae  et  nationis  in  mundo  fuerat." — Arcana  Coelestia, 
§  1772. 

134 


The  Dual  Memory 

"  Whatsoever  things  a  man  hears  and  sees,  and  is 
affected  with,  these  are  insinuated,  as  to  ideas  and  final 
motives  or  ends,  into  his  interior  memory,  without  his 
being  aware  of  it,  and  there  they  remain,  so  that  not 
a  single  impression  is  lost,  although  the  same  things 
are  obliterated  in  the  exterior  memory;  the  interior 
memory,  therefore,  is  such,  that  there  are  inscribed  in 
it  all  the  particular  things,  yea,  the  most  particular, 
which  man  has  at  any  time  thought,  spoken,  and  done, 
yea,  which  have  appeared  to  him  only  shadowy,  with 
the  most  minute  circumstances,  from  his  earliest  in- 
fancy to  extreme  old  age :  man  has  with  him  the  mem- 
ory of  all  these  things  when  he  comes  into  another  life, 
and  is  successively  brought  into  all  recollection  of  them  ; 
this  is  the  Book  of  his  Life  (Liber  ejus  Vitae),  which  is 
opened  in  another  life,  and  according  to  which  he  is 
judged ;  all  final  motives  or  ends  of  his  life,  which  were 
to  him  obscure;  all  that  he  had  thought,  and  likewise 
all  that  he  had  spoken  and  done,  as  derived  from  those 
ends,  are  recorded,  to  the  most  minute  circumstances, 
in  that  Book,  that  is,  in  the  interior  memory,  and  are 
made  manifest  before  the  angels,  in  a  light  as  clear  as 
day,  whensoever  the  Lord  sees  good  to  permit  it:  this 
has  at  times  been  shown  me,  and  evidenced  by  so  much 
and  various  experience,  that  there  does  not  remain  the 
smallest  doubt  concerning  it.* 

*  Referring  to  a  singular  experience  which  fell  under 
his  own  observation  while  a  student  at  Gottingen,  S.  T. 
Coleridge  makes  a  comment  which  warrants  us  in  sup- 
posing that  he  was,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  indebted 
to  Swedenborg  for  it.  He  says  : 

"This  fact — it  would  not  be  difficult  to 'adduce  several 
of  a  similar  kind — contributes  to  make  it  even  probable 
that  all  thoughts  are  in  themselves  imperishable;  and  that 
if  the  intelligent  faculty  should  be  rendered  more  compre- 

135 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

"  Men,  during  their  abode  in  the  world,  who  are  prin- 
cipled in  love  to  the  Lord,  and  in  charity  toward  their 
neighbor,  have  with  themselves,  and  in  themselves, 
angelic  intelligence  and  wisdom,  but  hidden  in  the  in- 
most of  their  interior  memory ;  which  intelligence  and 
wisdom  can  by  no  means  appear  to  them,  before  they 
put  off  things  corporeal;  then  the  memory  of  particulars 
spoken  of  above  is  laid  asleep,  and  they  are  awakened 
to  the  interior  memory,  and  afterward  to  the  angelic 
memory  itself.* 

"  A  certain  spirit,  recently  deceased,  was  indignant 
at  not  being  able  to  remember  more  of  the  things  which 
he  had  knowledge  of  during  his  life  in  the  body,  sorrow- 

hensive  it  would  require  only  a  differently  apportioned 
organization  —  the  body  celestial  instead  of  the  body  ter- 
restrial—  to  bring  before  every  human  soul  the  collective 
experience  of  its  whole  past.  And  this,  perchance,  is  the 
Book  of  Judgment,  in  the  dread  hieroglyphics  of  which 
every  idle  word  is  recorded.  Yea,  in  the  very  nature  of  a 
living  spirit,  it  may  be  more  possible  that  heaven  and  earth 
should  pass  away  than  that  a  single  act,  a  single  thought, 
should  be  loosened  or  lost  from  that  living  chain  of  causes 
with  all  the  links  of  which,  conscious  or  unconscious,  the 
free-will,  our  only  absolute  self,  is  co-extensive  and  co- 
present." — Biographia  Literaria,  Coleridge's  Works,  Har- 
per &  Brothers,  1853,  vol.  iii.  p.  229. 

*  "  The  French  army  at  this  time,"  says  Count  La  Vallette, 
who  was  serving  with  it  in  Egypt,  under  the  first  Napoleon, 
"  was  remarkably  free  from  any  feeling  of  religion."  The 
Count  tells  a  curious  anecdote  of  a  French  officer  who  was 
with  him  on  a  boat  which  was  nearly  wrecked.  The  officer 
said  the  "  Lord's  Prayer  "  from  beginning  to  end.  When 
the  danger  was  over  he  was  much  as'hamed,  and  apologized 
thus :  "  I  am  thirty-eight  years  old,  and  I  have  never 
uttered  a  prayer  since  I  was  six.  I  cannot  understand 
how  it  came  into  my  head  just  then,  for  I  declare  that  at 
this  moment  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  remember 
a  word  of  it." 

136 


The  Dual  Memory 

ing  on  account  of  the  delight  which  he  had  lost,  and 
with  which  he  had  formerly  been  particularly  gratified ; 
but  he  was  informed,  that  in  reality  he  had  lost  nothing, 
and  that  he  then  knew  all  and  every  thing  which  he 
had  ever  known,  but  that  in  another  life  it  was  not  allow- 
able for  him  to  call  forth  such  things  to  observation; 
and  that  he  should  be  satisfied  to  reflect,  that  it  was 
now  in  his  power  to  think  and  speak  much  better  and 
more  perfectly,  without  immersing  his  rational  principle, 
as  before,  in  the  gross,  obscure,  material,  and  corporeal 
things  which  were  of  no  use  in  the  kingdom  to  which  he 
was  now  come;  and  that  those  things  which  were  in  the  king- 
dom of  the  world,  were  left  behind,  and  he  had  now  what- 
ever conduced  to  the  use  of  eternal  life,  whereby  he  might 
be  blessed  and  happy ;  thus  that  it  was  a  proof  of  igno- 
rance to  believe,  that  in  another  life  there  is  any  loss 
of  intelligence  in  consequence  of  not  using  the  corporeal 
memory,  when  the  real  case  is,  that  in  proportion  as  the 
mind  is  capable  of  being  withdrawn  from  things  sensual 
and  corporeal,  in  the  same  proportion  it  is  elevated  into 
things  celestial  and  spiritual."  * 

Speaking  of  the  punishments  OA  some  of  the 
evil  spirits  in  hell,  Swedenborg  says : 

"  Wondering  that  they  were  so  severely  punished, 
I  perceived  that  it  was  because  their  crime  was  of  so  enor- 
mous a  kind,  arising  from  the  necessity  there  is  that  man 
should  sleep  in  safety,  since  otherwise  the  human  race 
must  necessarily  perish.  I  was  also  made  aware  that 
the  same  thing  occurs,  although  man  is  ignorant  of  the 
fact,  in  reference  to  others,  whom  these  spirits  endeavor 
by  their  artifices  to  assault  during  sleep;  for  unless 

*  Arcana  Coelestia,  vol.  i.  §§  2469-2479. 
137 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

it  be  given  to  converse  with  spirits,  being  with  them 
by  internal  sense,  it  is  impossible  to  hear,  and  much 
more  to  see,  such  things,  notwithstanding  they  happen 
alike  to  all.  The  Lord  is  particularly  watchful  over 
man  during  sleep.  Dominus  quam  maxime  custodit 
hominem  cum  dormit."  * 

"  Some,  by  a  peculiar  mercy,  are  prepared  for  heaven 
by  deep  sleep  and  by  dreams  which  infest  them  in 
sleep."  t 

"  Others  have  loved  the  world ;  but  they  are  kept  in 
a  state  of  sleep  until  the  delight  of  the  world  has  been 
lulled."  J 

"  When  corporal  and  voluntary  things  are  quiescent 
the  Lord  opera tes."§ 

"  There  is  no  separation  of  evil  but  through  its  quies- 
cence, nor  does  it  quiesce  except  from  the  Lord,  and 
when  it  thus  quiesces  goods  inflow  from  the  Lord."  || 

We  find  in  the  passages  here  cited: 
First.  A  recognition  of  the  existence  in  man 
of  two  mnemonical  functions,  each  quite  distinct 
from  the  other;  one  which  takes  note  of  all  our 
thoughts  and  acts  having  an  apparent  bearing 
upon  our  external  or  phenomenal  life  in  this  world ; 
the  other,  which  not  only  takes  note  of  those  events, 
but  which  takes  note  also  of  the  moral  quality, 
of  the  ultimate  end  in  which  such  thoughts  or 
acts  originated. 

Secondly.  That  while  some  of  the  impres- 
sions which  are  recorded  in  what  Swedenborg 

*  Arcana  Coelestia,  vol.  i.  959.       T  Spiritual  Diary,  427. 

J  Spiritual  Diary,  4199.  §  Arcana  Coelestia,  933. 

I)  Arcana  Coelestia,  1581. 

138 


The  Dual  Memory 

calls  the  external  memory  are  ultimately  obliter- 
ated, all  which  are  recorded  in  what  he  calls  the 
internal  memory  remain,  to  the  most  minute  par- 
ticular and  shade,  from  the  earliest  infancy,  and 
are  absolutely  imperishable. 

Thirdly.  That  as  in  the  spiritual  world  there 
are  no  limitations  of  time,  space,  or  sense,  all 
communication  is,  not  by  the  language  of  words, 
as  in  the  phenomenal  world,  but  by  the  ideas 
which  phenomena  express  or  represent,  and  as 
ideas  are  not  subject  to  any  of  the  limitations  of 
time,  space,  or  sense,  the  end  or  final  purpose  of 
our  thoughts  or  acts  are  all  that  leave  a  perma- 
nent impression,  just  as  the  story  or  the  thought  is 
all  that  is  left  on  the  reader's  mind  by  the  printed 
page.  In  the  words  of  Swedenborg,  "  Actions  have 
their  quality  from  the  thoughts,  as  thoughts  have 
their  quality  from  the  ends  purposed." 

Fourthly.  That  in  proportion  as  man  puts  off 
"things  corporeal,"  as  he  is  emancipated  from 
his  material,  sensual,  worldly  thrall,  he  is  awak- 
ened to  a  perception  of  the  intelligence  and  wis- 
dom stirred  up  in  his  interior  memory. 

There  is  nothing  in  our  sacred  writings,  nor,  I 
believe,  in  any  man's  experience,  which  can  be 
said  to  conflict  with  or  render  improbable  either 
of  these  propositions.  Be  that  as  it  may,  from 
what  we  may  fairly  claim  to  know  from  our  own 
experience  and  observation  of  the  phenomena 
of  sleep,  and  from  what  we  are  bound  to  infer 
from  the  teachings  of  the  sacred  writings  of  all 
139 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sects  and  nations  of  most  considerable  acceptance 
throughout  the  world,  and  especially  from  the 
Christian's  Bible,  it  seems  impossible  to  resist 
the  conclusion  that  the  final  purposes  of  our  crea- 
tion and  existence,  of  our  esse  and  our  existere, 
are  not  only  as  operative  during  our  sleeping  as 
during  our  waking  hours,  and  that  a  work  is 
being  wrought  in  us,  a  process  is  going  on  in 
us,  during  those  hours,  which  is  not  and  cannot 
be  wrought  so  effectually,  if  at  all,  at  any  other 
time ;  that  we  are  spiritually  growing,  developing, 
ripening  more  continuously,  while  thus  shielded 
from  the  distracting  influences  of  the  phenomenal 
world,  than  during  the  hours  in  which  we  are 
absorbed  by  them;  that,  in  the  language  of  the 
pagan  philosopher,  "the  night-time  of  the  body 
is  the  daytime  of  the  soul."  Our  phenomenal 
life  has  its  specific  lessons  for  us.  Why  should 
not  our  non-phenomenal  life  also  have  its  specific 
lessons  for  us?  Why  should  we  doubt  that  it  is 
in  sleep  that  God  "openeth  the  ears  of  men  and 
sealeth  their  instruction,  that  he  may  withdraw 
man  from  his  purpose  and  hide  pride  from  man," 
and  "  that  he  may  keep  back  his  soul  from  the 
pit"?  Does  not  all  that  we  know  of  sleep,  and 
of  its  effects  upon  character,  tend  to  confirm  ev- 
ery line  and  every  word  of  this  definite  and  un- 
conditional and  authoritative  statement  of  Job's 
sympathizing  friend?  If  there  is  a  single  precept 
of  our  faith  more  frequently  urged  and  insisted 
upon  by  the  Christian  Church  than  any  other  it 
140 


Overcoming  the  World 

is  the  necessity  of  "overcoming  the  world."  The 
devil  is  called  the  prince  of  this  world.  He  boasted 
of  the  fact  to  Jesus.  The  "  world  "  is  a  synonym 
for  all  sorts  of  sensual  lusts  and  pleasures,  and 
for  all  undue  greed  for  wealth,  dignities,  and 
honors.  To  overcome  the  world,  to  rise  superior 
to  its  temptations,  so  that  they  shall  not  corrupt 
our  life  or  blind  our  judgment,  is  uniformly  present- 
ed to  us  by  the  Christian  Church,  as  it  has  been 
by  the  most  enlightened  pagan  sects,  as  the  su- 
preme end  and  purpose  of  our  life  in  the  flesh. 
Is  it  not  precisely  the  function  of  sleep  to  give 
us  for  a  portion  of  every  day  in  our  lives  a  res- 
pite from  worldly  influences  which,  uninterrupted, 
would  deprive  us  of  the  instruction,  of  the  spiritual 
reinforcements  necessary  to  qualify  us  to  turn 
our  waking  experience  of  the  world  to  the  best 
account  without  being  overcome  by  them?  It 
is  in  these  hours  that  the  plans  and  ambitions 
of  our  external,  worldly  life  cease  to  interfere 
with  or  obstruct  the  flow  of  the  divine  life  into 
the  will.  And  in  these  hours  may  we  not  be, 
is  it  not  more  than  probable  that  we  are,  in  the 
society  of  those  "ministering  spirits"  referred  to 
by  Paul  "  who  are  sent  forth  to  do  service  for  the 
sake  of  them  that  shall  inherit  salvation"? 

The  moral  distinction  between  lower  animals 
and  man  is  curiously  illustrated  in  the  character 
of  their  sleep.  A  man  ordinarily  awakens  slowly 
from  a  deep  sleep;  he  does  not  for  a  time  realize 
where  he  is ;  he  seems  to  be  more  or  less  dazed  and 
141 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

not  entirely  satisfied  with  the  change  which  seems 
to  him  to  have  taken  place.  He  is  apt  to  act  for 
a  few  moments  as  though  he  had  been  in  a  place 
or  society  which  he  was  reluctant  to  leave.  As 
Charles  Lamb  expressed  it,  he  wishes  to  lie  a 
little  longer  to  digest  his  dreams. 

A  sleeping  dog,  however,  will  hear  a  noise 
which  his  master,  though  by  his  side,  awake,  will 
not  hear,  and  in  an  instant  is  in  as  full  possession 
of  all  his  faculties  as  if  he  had  not  been  sleeping. 
He  betrays  no  evidence  of  having  reluctantly 
parted  with  pleasant  company  or  pleasant  occu- 
pations. And  why  should  he?  He  has  no  af- 
fections for  his  kind  when  awake  for  which  he 
would  sacrifice  a  bone,  though  he  did  not  wish 
it  himself. 

Is  not  this  precisely  what  we  should  expect 
from  the  psychical  difference  of  the  dog  from  the 
man?  And  does  it  not  warrant  the  conclusion 
that  when  a  man  is  sleeping  his  condition  and 
associations  are  as  different  from  a  dog's  as  they 
are  while  awake? 


CHAPTER  X 

In  sleep  we  die  daily — God  alone  is  life — All  causes 
are  spiritual  —  All  phenomena  are  results  —  Scipio's 
dream — Sleep  and  death  twins. 


HAVING,  as  I  think,  established  at  least  a 
violent  presumption  that  something  of  supreme 
importance  is  being  operated  within  us  during 
our  sleeping  hours ;  that  that  something  concerns 
our  spiritual  training  and  development;  and  that 
this  view  is  countenanced,  not  only  by  some  of  the 
most  eminent  thinkers  of  all  time,  but  by  what 
Christians  call  the  Word  of  God ;  may  we  not  pen- 
etrate a  little  further  into  the  mysteries  of  those 
consecrated  hours? 

We  are  warranted  in  saying  that  the  constit- 
uents of  every  human  being  are  either  material 
or  spiritual,  either  body  or  soul.  No  one  has 
any  attributes  or  qualities  that  do  not  come  under 
one  or  the  other  of  these  rubrics.  Neither  can  it 
be  successfully  disputed  that  all  matter  is  inert, 
is  incapable  of  initiating  or  of  arresting  motion ; 
that  it  can  neither  be  increased  nor  diminished 
in  volume.  Its  arrangement  or  form  may  be 
changed,  but  not  its  quantity.  It  has,  therefore, 
no  life  in  itself,  though,  like  a  house  or  a  garment, 

143 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

it  may  be  the  habitation  of  life  of  what  we  call 
the  soul,  or  spirit. 

It  is  true  that  the  tree  drops  its  fruit  and  its 
leaves  in  their  season,  but  neither  tree,  leaf,  nor 
fruit  dies;  they  merely  pass  into  a  new  form  of 
life,  as  man  is  presumed  to  do  when  his  heart 
ceases  to  beat.  This  habitation  returns  to  its 
elements,  or  some  other  form,  neither  increased 
nor  impaired  in  quantity  by  the  change.  In  the 
language  of  Juvenal : 

"  Mors  sola  fatetur 
Quantula  sint  hominum  corpuscula." 

But  what  becomes  of  the  tenant?  We  neither 
know  nor  can  conceive  of  anything  having  oc- 
curred to  the  soul  more  certain  than,  or  beyond  the 
fact,  that  it  has  been  emancipated  from  the  re- 
strictions of  its  prison-house  and  set  free  to  do, 
be,  or  become  whatever  it  has  been  prepared  for 
becoming  during  its  earthly  confinement. 

This  spirit  was  all  of  the  man  that  was  or  could 
have  been  substantial  to  him.  It  possessed  and 
represented  all  he  had  or  knew  of  life.  It  was 
all  there  was  or  is  of  any  one's  I  am. 

"  There's  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  behold'st, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-ey'd  cherubins: 
Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls; 
But,  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it."  * 

*  "Merchant  of  Venice,"  act  v.  scene  I. 
144 


God  Alone  is  Life 
Milton  describes  the  death  of  Jesus  as 

"  a  death  like  sleep ; 
A  gentle  drifting  to  immortal  life."  * 

So  when  Adam  communicated  to  Eve  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  they  were  to  leave  Paradise, 
the  poet  adds: 

"  For  God  is  also  in  sleep,  and  dreams  advise." 

All  life  emanates  from  our  Creator,  who  is  life 
itself,  and  necessarily  the  source  of  all  life  —  a 
doctrine  I  was  gratified  to  find  dogmatically  and 
most  impressively  stated  quite  recently  by  the 
head  of  the  most  numerous  division  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  in  an  encyclical  issued 
from  the  Vatican  in  November,  1901  A.D., said: 

"  God  alone  is  life.  All  other  things  partake  of  life, 
but  are  not  life.  Christ,  from  all  eternity  and  by  his 
very  nature,  is  '  the  Life/  just  as  He  is  the  Truth,  be- 
cause He  is  God  of  God.  From  Him,  as  from  its  most 
sacred  source,  all  life  pervades  and  ever  will  pervade 
creation.  Whatever  is,  is  by  Him;  whatever  lives, 
lives  by  Him.  For  '  by  the  Word  all  things  were  made ; 
and  without  Him  was  made  nothing  that  was  made.'  ' 

The  same  view  of  the  origin  of  life  and  the  great 
distinction  between  divine  and  natural,  or  sec- 
ondary, causes  was  proclaimed  in  Rome  nearly 
twenty  centuries  before  this  encyclical  from  our 
contemporary  Pontifex  Maximus,  and  under  cir- 

*  Paradise  Lost,  xii.  430. 
145 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

cumstances  which  lend  a  peculiar  interest  to  it. 
The  world  is  indebted  to  Cicero  for  the  record 
of  it,  and  to  Macrobius  for  finding  it  after  it  had 
been  supposed,  for  some  fifteen  centuries,  to  be 
irrevocably  lost.  I  refer  to  the  extraordinary 
vision  attributed  to  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio, 
the  second  Scipio  Africanus,  while  he  was  the 
military  tribune  in  Africa  and  the  guest  of  Prince 
Massanissa. 

The  night  after  his  arrival,  and  after  much 
talk  about  politics  and  government,  but  mostly 
of  his  ancestor,  known  as  the  first  Africanus, 
Scipio  retired  to  rest,  and,  as  he  said,  "A  sleep 
sounder  than  ordinary  came  over  me."  In  his 
sleep  he  represents  Africanus  the  elder  to  have 
presented  himself,  and  to  have  predicted  many 
things,  favorable  and  menacing,  to  his  descendant. 

"Upon  your  single  person/'  said  Africanus, 
"the  preservation  of  your  country  will  depend; 
and,  in  short,  it  is  your  part,  as  dictator,  to  settle 
the  government,  if  you  can  but  escape  the  im- 
pious hands  of  your  kinsmen.  .  .  . 

"But  that  you  may  be  more  earnest  in  the 
defence  of  your  country,  know  from  me  that  a 
certain  place  in  heaven,  where  they  are  to  enjoy 
an  endless  duration  of  happiness,  is  assigned  to 
all  who  have  preserved,  or  assisted,  or  improved 
their  country.  For  there  is  nothing  which  takes 
place  on  earth  more  acceptable  to  that  Supreme 
Deity  who  governs  all  this  world  than  those 
councils  and  assemblies  of  men  bound  together 
146 


Scipio's  Dream 

by  law  which  are  termed  states;  the  governors 
and  preservers  of  these  go  hence,  and  hither  do 
they  return." 

"Here/'  says  Scipio,  "frightened  as  I  was, 
not  so  much  from  the  dread  of  death  as  of  the 
treachery  of  my  friends,  I  asked  him  whether 
my  father  Paulus  and  others  whom  we  thought 
to  be  dead  were  yet  alive.  'To  be  sure  they  are 
alive,'  replied  Africanus,  'for  they  have  escaped 
from  the  fetters  of  the  body  as  from  a  prison.  That 
which  you  call  your  life  is  really  death.  But 
behold  your  father  Paulus  approaching  you.' 
No  sooner  did  I  see  him,"  says  Scipio,  "than  I 
poured  forth  a  flood  of  tears;  but  he,  embracing 
and  kissing  me,  forbade  me  to  weep.  And  when, 
having  suppressed  my  tears,  I  began  first  to 
speak,  '  Why,'  said  I,  '  thou  most  sacred  and  ex- 
cellent father,  since  this  is  life,  as  I  hear  Africanus 
affirm,  why  do  I  tarry  on  earth,  and  not  hasten 
to  come  to  you?' 

"'Not  so,  my  son,'  he  replied.  'Unless  that 
God  whose  temple  is  all  this  which  you  behold 
shall  free  you  from  this  imprisonment  in  the  body 
you  can  have  no  admission  to  this  place ;  for  men 
have  been  created  under  this  condition,  that  they 
should  keep  that  globe  which  you  see  in  the  middle 
of  this  temple,  and  which  is  called  the  earth.  And 
a  soul  has  been  supplied  to  them  from  those  eternal 
fires  which  you  call  constellations  and  stars,  and 
which,  being  globular  and  round,  are  animated 
with  divine  spirit,  and  complete  their  cycles  and 

147 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

revolutions  with  amazing  rapidity.  Therefore 
you,  my  Publius,  and  all  good  men,  must  pre- 
serve your  souls  in  the  keeping  of  your  bodies; 
nor  without  the  order  of  that  Being  who  bestowed 
them  upon  you,  are  you  to  depart  from  mundane 
life,  lest  you  seem  to  desert  the  duty  of  a  man, 
which  has  been  assigned  you  by  God.  There- 
fore, Scipio,  like  your  grandfather  here,  and  me, 
who  begot  you,  cultivate  justice  and  piety,  which, 
while  it  should  be  great  towards  your  parents  and 
relations,  should  be  greatest  towards  your  coun- 
try. Such  a  life  is  the  path  to  heaven  and  the 
assembly  of  those  who  have  lived  before,  and 
who,  having  been  released  from  their  bodies,  in- 
habit that  place  which  thou  beholdest." 

"Truly,  O  Africanus/'  said  the  junior  Scipio, 
"  since  the  path  to  heaven  lies  open  to  those  who 
have  deserved  well  of  their  country,  though  from 
my  childhood  I  have  ever  trod  in  your  and  my 
father's  footsteps  without  disgracing  your  glory, 
yet  now,  with  so  noble  a  prize  set  before  me,  I 
shall  strive  with  much  more  diligence. 

'"Do  so  strive/  replied  he,  'and  do  not  consider 
yourself,  but  your  body,  to  be  mortal.  For  you 
are  not  the  being  which  this  corporeal  figure  evinces; 
but  the  soul  of  every  man  is  the  -man,  and  not  that 
form  which  may  be  pointed  at  with  a  finger.  Know, 
therefore,  that  you  are  a  divine  person.  Since  it  is 
divinity  that  has  consciousness,  sensation,  memory, 
and  foresight — that  governs,  regulates,  and  moves 
that  body  over  which  it  has  been  appointed,  just 
148 


Scipio's   Dream 

as  the  Supreme  Deity  rules  this  world;  and  in 
like  manner,  as  an  eternal  God  guides  this  world, 
which  in  some  respects  is  perishable,  so  an  eternal 
spirit  animates  your  frail  body. 

"'For  that  which  is  ever  moving  is  eternal. 
Now,  that  which  communicates  to  another  object 
a  motion  which  it  received  elsewhere  must  neces- 
sarily cease  to  live  as  soon  as  its  motion  is  at  an 
end.  Thus  the  being  which  is  self-motive  is  the 
only  being  that  is  eternal,  because  it  never  is 
abandoned  by  its  own  properties,  neither  is  this 
self-motion  ever  at  an  end;  nay,  this  is  the  foun- 
tain, this  is  the  beginning  of  motion  to  all  things 
that  are  thus  subjects  of  motion. 

"'Since,  therefore,  it  is  plain  that  whatever  is 
self-motive  must  be  eternal,  who  can  deny  that 
this  natural  property  is  bestowed  upon  our  minds? 
For  everything  that  is  moved  by  a  foreign  im- 
pulse is  inanimate,  but  that  which  is  animate 
is  impelled  by  an  inward  and  peculiar  principle 
of  motion;  and  in  that  consists  the  nature  and 
property  of  the  soul.  Now,  if  it  alone  of  all 
things  is  self -motive,  assuredly  it  never  was 
originated,  and  is  eternal.  Do  thou,  therefore, 
employ  it  in  the  noblest  of  pursuits,  and  the 
noblest  of  cares  are  those  for  the  safety  of  thy 
country.' 

"He  vanished,  and  I  awoke  from  my  sleep." 

This  story  comes  to  us  as  a  dream.     Whether 
a  dream,  a  vision,  or  a  meditation,  science  knows 
149 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

nothing  and  can  presume  nothing  in  conflict  with 
this  pagan's  view  either  of  life  or  death. 

We  absolutely  know  nothing  of  life  which 
warrants  us  in  attributing  to  it  perishability ; 
nor  have  we  any  reason  to  presume  that  with  the 
change  called  death  anything  perishes,  or  that 
anything  more  has  really  occurred  than  a  separa- 
tion of  the  tenant  from  his  habitation — of  the  soul 
from  its  material  prison.  Neither  have  we  more 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  spirit,  or  soul,  has 
become  less  a  soul,  less  an  individual  life,  than 
that  the  matter  with  which  it  was  clothed  has 
been  diminished  in  quantity  by  the  separation. 
The  destructibility  of  matter  was,  until  com- 
paratively recent  times,  just  as  popular  a  belief, 
and  even  more  universally  prevalent  than  is  now 
that  of  the  extinction  of  life  when  the  soul  leaves 
the  body.  Nor  can  science  produce  any  evidence 
that  the  one  belief  was  any  more  fallacious  than 
the  other.  We  are  sent  into  this  world  and  in- 
vested with  material  garments  in  order  that  we 
may  be  qualified  to  study  and  comprehend  divine 
laws.  The  phenomenal  world  into  which  we  are 
born  is  a  kind  of  kindergarten  where  those  di- 
vine laws  are  illustrated  and  made  intelligible  to 
our  undeveloped  and  limited  intelligence,  through 
the  operations  of  what  we  call  Nature.  It  is 
a  stage  in  our  education  when  the  phenomenal 
world  is  a  necessity  to  us,  as  the  hornbook  and 
black-board  are  to  school  -  children.  When  we 
have  learned  all  the  lessons  in  this  kindergarten 
ISO 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

by  which  we  are  likely  to  profit  we  leave  that 
school ;  and  in  leaving  it,  we  assume  the  larger 
liberty  of  that  higher  life  where  time  and  space 
only  signify  differences  in  moral  conditions; 
where,  as  in  this  life,  we  will  seek  the  associa- 
tion and  companionship  of  those  with  whom  we 
shall  then  have  most  affinity. 

All  these,  I  say,  are  presumptions;  and  the 
burden  of  proof  lies  upon  those  who  would  un- 
dertake to  maintain  the  contrary  in  any  of  these 
particulars. 

Now,  after  we  have  shaken  off  this  mortal  coil 
and  entered  the  world  of  spirits,  in  what  respect 
does  our  condition  differ  from  that  of  sleep?  In 
both,  our  consciousness  of  this  phenomenal  world 
— of  the  kindergarten — has  been  entirely  suspend- 
ed. It  is  true  that  from  sleep  we  awaken,  sooner 
or  later,  to  a  consciousness  of  our  incorporate 
limitations,  while  from  death  we  do  not  awake. 
But  is  the  difference  any  more  than  this — that  in 
one  case  our  carriage  is  left  standing  at  the  door 
to  take  us  back  again,  while  in  the  other  we  have 
no  animus  revertendi?  Having  reached  home, 
we  have  no  further  use  for  our  carriage  and  it 
is  dismissed. 

Nay,  what  reason  have  we  for  doubting  that 
during  our  sleep  we  are  in  substantially  the  same 
society  and  surrounded  by  similar,  if  not  the  same, 
influences  as  we  should  be  were  we  never  again 
to  awake?  We  cannot  conceive  that  the  aban- 
donment of  our  earthly  habitation,  the  laying 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

aside  of  our  garments,  the  deliverance  from  our 
prison,  has  deprived  us  of  any  of  the  qualities  or 
attributes  which  constituted  our  being,  except  upon 
the  theory  of  utter  extinction  by  the  separation. 
The  spirit,  or  soul,  inhabits  the  body,  but  is  no 
more  a  part  of  it  than  the  heat  generated  in  a 
furnace  is  a  part  of  the  furnace  or  the  light  in  our 
chamber  is  a  part  of  the  chamber.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  spiritual  world  are  presumed  to  know  noth- 
ing of  the  limitations  of  time  or  space.  There 
is  no  manifest  reason,  therefore,  why  we  should 
not  always  be  accessible  to  and  in  intercourse 
with  them,  unless  when  too  preoccupied  by  the  dis- 
tractions of  our  environment  in  the  phenomenal 
world;  nor  for  presuming  that  our  post-mortem 
life  will  differ  from  our  condition  while  sleeping, 
except  that  one  is  for  a  time  and  the  other  for 
eternity.  As  the  spirit  during  sleep  is  presump- 
tively as  free  as  it  ever  will  be  from  all  the  re- 
strictions of  sense,  what  reason  is  there  for  doubt- 
ing that  we  enter  at  once  into  a  life  and  a  society 
substantially  the  same  as  that  awaiting  us  when 
we  enter  into  "  the  sleep  that  knows  no  waking  "? 

This  presumption  is  strengthened  by  the  fact 
that  we  can  bring  back  no  more  information  of 
what  occurs  to  us  in  our  temporary  sleeps  than 
we  can  from  the  spiritual  world  when  we  shall 
sleep  with  our  fathers. 

During  our  sleep  we  have  no  more  power  over 
anything  in  this  phenomenal  world  than,  while 
we  are  awake,  we  have  over  the  spiritual  world; 
152 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

and  yet,  while  asleep,  we  retain,  in  full  activity, 
all  the  powers  to  act  upon  the  world  about  us, 
save  only  the  power  or  inclination  to  exert  them. 
While  this  condition  continues,  what  other  or 
greater  change  could  be  wrought  in  us  by  death? 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  extraordinary  change, 
psychological  and  physical,  which  we  experience 
after  a  night's  sound  sleep,  by  what  theory  can 
that  change  be  so  satisfactorily  and  so  rationally 
explained  as  to  suppose  that  we  have  been  tem- 
porarily in  association  with  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded us  to  the  spirit  land?  What  is  there  im- 
probable in  this?  What  more  entirely  consistent 
with  divine  goodness?  What  so  admirably,  what 
so  exclusively  adapted  to  work  the  change  which 
in  the  morning  we  realize  has  been  worked  in 
us  during  our  slumbering?  How  very  much  more 
probable  this,  than  that  one-third  of  each  day  of 
our  lives  is  permitted  to  go  to  waste,  for  which 
there  is  no  imaginable  explanation  better  than 
that  a  Creator,  of  infinite  wisdom,  could  not  fash- 
ion us  in  his  image  in  any  way  that  did  not  in- 
volve that  waste — an  absurd  presumption. 

While  in  a  swoon  or  in  immediate  peril  of  drown- 
ing, as  in  some  other  cases  of  temporarily  sus- 
pended action  of  the  heart  and  lungs,  persons 
have  remained  for  hours,  and  even  weeks,  without 
any  consciousness  of  the  phenomenal  life.  Dur- 
ing this  suspended  consciousness  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  any  psychological  difference  between 
their  condition  and  death. 

153 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

The  evidence  is  practically  unanimous  that 
while  in  a  swoon  or  while  near  drowning,  one's 
experience,  instead  of  being  painful,  is  altogether 
agreeable,  even  blissful,  and  entirely  free  from 
the  concern  and  anxiety  with  which  the  prospect 
of  death  is  ordinarily  contemplated  when  awake. 

An  impressive  illustration  of  what  the  death 
of  the  natural  body  means  comes  to  us  through 
the  following  Persian  story,  abridged  from  Sir 
Edwin  Arnold's  Light  of  Asia: 

"DEATH  OF  ABDALLAH 

"  Faithful  friends,  it  lies,  I  know, 
Pale  and  white,  and  cold  as  snow; 
And  ye  say,  '  Abdallah's  dead,' 
Weeping  at  the  feet  and  head. 
I  can  see  your  falling  tears, 
I  can  hear  your  sighs  and  prayers; 
Yet  I  smile  and  whisper  this: 
'/  am  not  the  thing  you  kiss! 
Cease  your  tears  and  let  it  lie; 
It  was  mine — it  is  not  I.' 

"  Sweet  friends,  what  the  women  lave 
For  the  last  sleep  of  the  grave 
Is  the  hut  that  I  am  quitting, 
Is  the  garment  no  more  fitting, 
Is  the  cage  from  which  at  last, 
Like  a  bird,  my  soul  has  passed. 
Love  the  inmate,  not  the  room; 
The  wearer,  not  the  garb — the  plume 
Of  the  eagle,  not  the  bars 
That  keep  him  from  the  splendid  stars. 
154 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

"  Loving  friends,  oh,  rise  and  dry 
Straightway  every  weeping  eye; 
What  ye  lift  upon  the  bier 
Is  not  worth  one  single  tear. 
'Tis  an  empty  sea-shell — one 
Out  of  which  the  pearl  is  gone. 
The  shell  is  broken,  it  lies  there; 
The  pearl,  the  all,  the  soul  is  here." 

If  this  resemblance  of  sleep  to  death  should 
seem  chimerical  to  any,  I  have  only  to  say  that 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible  on  that  subject  must 
seem  equally  so.  In  that  sacred  record  death  and 
sleep  are  frequently  —  I  might  almost  say  con- 
stantly— used  as  equivalents. 

Among  the  many  marvels  by  which  the  death 
of  Jesus  on  the  cross  was  signalized,  "the  tombs 
were  opened  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints  that 
had  fallen  asleep  were  raised."* 

In  the  first  letter  of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians  he 
says: 

"  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  also 
I  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according 
to  the  scriptures ;  and  that  he  was  buried ;  and  that  he 
hath  been  raised  on  the  third  day  according  to  the  script- 
ures; and  that  he  appeared  to  Cephas;  then  to  the 
twelve;  then  he  appeared  to  five  hundred  brethren  at 
once,  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  until  now,  but 
some  are  fallen  asleep."  t 

In  the  same  letter  Paul  says: 

*  I  Corinthians  15-20.  t  I  Corinthians  xv.  3-7. 

155 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

"  For  if  the  dead  are  not  raised,  neither  hath  Christ 
been  raised :  and  if  Christ  hath  not  been  raised,  your 
faith  is  vain;  you  are  yet  in  your  sins.  Then  they 
which  are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ  have  perished.  If 
in  this  life  only  we  have  hoped  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all 
most  pitiable.  But  now  hath  Christ  been  raised  from 
the  dead,  the  first-fruits  of  them  that  are  asleep." 

When  Stephen  was  stoned  to  death  for  his 
loyalty  to  Jesus,  he  is  reported  to  have  kneeled 
down  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Lord,  lay 
not  this  to  their  charge.  And  when  he  had  said 
this  he  fell  asleep."*  We  have  no  other  authority 
for  saying  that  he  died. 

Paul,  in  the  thirteenth  verse  of  the  fourth  chap- 
ter of  his  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  says : 

"  But  we  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren, 
concerning  them  that  fall  asleep;  that  ye  sorrow  not, 
even  as  the  rest,  which  have  no  hope.  For  if  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  that 
are  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him." 

Also,  in  the  ninth  verse  of  the  fifth  chapter 
of  his  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  he  says: 

"  For  God  appointed  us  not  unto  wrath,  but  unto  the 
obtaining  of  salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  died  for  us,  that,  whether  we  wake  or  sleep,  we  should 
live  together  with  him." 

"  Knowing  this  first  that  there  shall  come  in  the 
last  days  scoffers  walking  after  their  own  lusts,  and 

*  Acts  vii.  60. 
156 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

saying,  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming?  for  since 
the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  from  the 
beginning  of  the  creation." 

"  David,  after  he  had  in  his  own  generation  served 
the  counsel  of  God,  fell  on  sleep  and  was  laid  unto  his 
fathers."! 

When  the  sisters  of  Lazarus  sought  Jesus,  to 
tell  Him  that  their  brother  was  dead,  He  replied 
to  them :  "  Our  friend  Lazarus  sleepeth ;  but  I 
go  that  I  may  awake  him  out  of  sleep."  Then 
said  his  disciples :  "  If  he  sleep  he  shall  do  well " ; 
howbeit  Jesus  spoke  of  his  death.  But  they 
thought  He  had  spoken  of  taking  rest  in  sleep. 
Then  said  Jesus  unto  them,  "Lazarus  is  dead." 

Here  we  find  Jesus  calling  the  separation  of 
the  soul  from  the  material  body,  which  the  dis- 
ciples termed  death,  sleep ;  and  it  was  not  till  the 
disciples  showed  that  they  misunderstood  Him 
that  He  said,  "Lazarus  is  dead." 

The  brethren  of  Lazarus  said  he  was  dead; 
Jesus  said  he  slept.  Did  not  both  tell  the  truth? 

When  the  prophet  Elisha  learned  that  the  child 
of  the  Shunammite  woman  was  dead  he  gave 
his  servant  Gehazi  his  staff  and  directed  him  to 
go  and  lay  it  upon  the  child.  He  did  so,  but  was 
obliged  to  report  to  Elisha  that  "  there  was  neither 
voice  nor  hearing.  The  child  is  not  awaked." 

Elisha  then  came  and  found  "the  child  was  dead 
and  laid  upon  his  bed."  He  went  in,  shut  to  the 

*  2  Peter  iii.  3.  t  Acts  xiii.  36. 

157 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

door,  excluding  all  but  the  boy  and  himself  and 
prayed  unto  the  Lord.  Then,  after  embracing 
him,  "  the  flesh  of  the  child  waxed  warm."  Pres- 
ently he  sent  for  the  mother  and  said  to  her, 
"Take  up  thy  son." 

Here  the  child  had  been  dead.  But  all  life 
comes  from  the  Lord,  and,  in  answer  to  the 
prophet's  prayer,  his  body  was  warmed  into 
life  again;  or,  to  use  Gehazi's  expression,  was 
"awaked."* 

The  daughter  of  Jairus  was  given  up  for  dead 
by  her  family.  "Why  make  ye  a  tumult,  and 
weep?"  said  Jesus,  when  He  arrived,  in  response 
to  a  message  from  the  father.  "  The  child  is  not 
dead,  but  sleepeth.  And  they  laughed  him  to 
scorn.  But  he,  having  put  them  all  forth,  taketh 
the  father  of  the  child  and  her  mother  and  them 
that  were  with  him,  and  goeth  in  where  the 
child  was.  And  taking  the  child  by  the  hand,  he 
saith  unto  her,  Talitha  cumi;  which  is,  being 
interpreted,  Damsel,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise.  And 
straightway  the  damsel  rose  up,  and  walked ;  for 
she  was  twelve  years  old."  t 

Again  in  I  Kings  i.  21 : 

"  Otherwise  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  my  lord  the 
king  shall  sleep  with  his  fathers,  that  I  and  my  son  Sol- 
omon shall  be  counted  offenders." 

*  2  Kings  iv.  30-37. 

t  Mark  v.  39;  see  also  Acts  ix.  10;  xii.  6;  Canticles  v.  2; 
Hosea  xii.  10;  Jeremiah  xxxi.  26;  John  xi.  II. 

158 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

In  the  thirty-ninth  verse  of  the  fifty-first  chap- 
ter of  Jeremiah  we  read: 

"  When  they  are  heated,  I  will  make  their  feast ;  and 
I  will  make  them  drunken,  that  they  may  rejoice,  and 
sleep  a  perpetual  sleep,  and  not  wake,  saith  the  Lord." 

Secular  and  profane  authority  help  to  show 
how  universally  the  conditions  of  sleep  and  death 
were  assimilated  in  the  popular  mind  throughout 
the  ages. 

It  was  the  common  belief  of  the  ancient  philos- 
ophers of  Greece  and  Rome  that  the  causes  of 
sleep  and  death  were  the  same.  A  place  was 
assigned  them  in  their  Pantheon  as  brothers. 
Sleep  was  regarded  both  by  the  Epicureans  and 
the  Stoics,  as  well  as  by  Plato,  as  death,  follow- 
ed by  a  resurrection.  "Latet  meus  oppressa 
somno,"  says  Lactantius,  "tanquam  ignis  ob- 
ducto  cinere  sopitus,  quern  si  paulatim  commo- 
veris,  rursus  ardescit  et  quasi  evigilabat." 
"*  Lucretius  illustrates  the  same  idea  by  the  same 
metaphor :  * 

"  cinere  ut  multa  latet  obrutus  ignis, 
Unde  reconflari  sensus  per  membra  repente 
Possit,  ut  ex  igni  Caeco  consurgere  flamma." 

Pausanias,  describing  the  inscriptions  on  a 
chest,  or  cypsela,  says: 

"  On  the  other  side  of  the  chest,  beginning  from  the 

*  De  Rerum  Natura,  liber  iv. 
'59 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

left  hand,  you  will  see  a  woman  holding  a  white  boy 
who  is  asleep,  in  her  right  hand,  but  in  her  left  hand 
a  black  boy,  who  is  likewise  asleep  and  whose  feet  are 
distorted.  The  inscriptions  signify — though  you  might 
infer  without  them — that  these  boys  are  Death  and 
Sleep  and  that  the  Woman  who  is  their  nurse  is  Night." 

So  when  in  the  Iliad  the  large-eyed  Juno  re- 
monstrated with  the  "dread  Son  of  Saturn"  for 
wishing  to  deliver  Sarpedon 

"  from  the  common  lot 
Of  death,  a  mortal  doomed  long  since  by  fate," 

she  finally  suggested  an  alternative  which  was 

embraced : 

"  Yet  if  he  be 

So  dear  to  thee  and  thou  dost  pity  him, 
Let  him  in  mortal  combat  be  o'ercome 
By  Menaetiades,  and  when  the  breath 
Of  life  has  left  his  frame,  give  thou  command 
To  Death  and  Gentle  Sleep  to  bear  him  hence 
To  the  broad  realm  of  Lycia.     There  his  friends 
And  brethren  shall  perform  the  funeral  rites; 
There  shall  they  build  him  up  a  tomb  and  rear 
A  column — honors  that  become  the  dead."  t 

After  Sarpedon  had  been  slain  by  Patroclus, 
the  Cloud-Compeller  spake  to  Phoebus  thus: 

"  Go  now  beloved  Phoebus,  and  withdraw 
Sarpedon  from  the  weapons  of  his  foes; 

*  Pausanias,  book  v.  ch.  18. 

t  Homer's  Iliad,  Bryant's  translation,  book  xvi.  565—575. 

160 


How  Far  Sleep  is  Death 

Cleanse  him  from  the  dark  blood  and  bear  him  thence, 
And  lave  him  in  the  river-stream,  and  shed 
Ambrosia  o'er  him.     Clothe  him  then  in  robes 
Of  heaven,  consigning  him  to  Sleep  and  Death, 
Twin  brothers,  and  swift  bearers  of  the  dead; 
And  they  shall  lay  him  in  Lycia's  fields, 
That  broad  and  opulent  realm — "  etc. 

Apollo  instantly  obeyed  his  father,  sought  the 
field  of  battle,  bore  off  Sarpedon, 

"  And  laved  him  in  the  river-stream  and  shed 
Ambrosia  o'er  him.     Then  in  robes  of  heaven 
He  clothed  him,  giving  him  to  Sleep  and  Death, 
Twin  brothers  and  swift  bearers  of  the  dead, 
And  they,  with  speed  conveying  it,  laid  down 
The  corpse  in  Lycia's  broad  and  opulent  realm."  * 

Here  Death  and  Sleep  are  twice  designated  as 
brothers  and  a  third  time  are  sent  together  on 
the  vsame  errand,  implying  functional  equality. 

Of  the  Golden  Age,  or  Edenic  period,  Hesiod, 
the  father  of  Greek  poetry,  said: 

"  As  gods  they  lived,  void  of  care,  apart  from  labors 
and  trouble;  nor  was  wretched  old  age  impending,  and 
they  died  as  if  overcome  by  sleep." 

Xenophon,  as  quoted  by  Cicero,  represents 
Cyrus,  King  of  Persia,  saying  to  his  children  on 
his  death-bed: 

"  Do  not  believe,  my  dear  children,  that  when  I  shall 
*  Homer's  Iliad,  Bryant's  translation,  book  xvi.  833-853. 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

have  quitted  you  I  shall  be  nowhere  and  no  more  (nun- 
quam  aut  nullum  fore).  While  I  was  with  you  you  did 
not  see  my  soul ;  you  only  comprehended  by  my  actions 
that  this  body  was  animated  by  one.  I  have  never 
been  able  to  persuade  myself  that  souls  that  live  while 
in  mortal  bodies,  when  they  leave  them  die.  I  cannot 
believe  that  they  lose  all  intelligence  in  quitting  bodies 
that  are  essentially  destitute  of  intelligence.  When 
death  disunites  the  human  frame,  we  clearly  see  what 
becomes  of  its  material  parts;  they  apparently  return 
to  the  several  elements  out  of  which  they  were  com- 
posed ;  but  the  soul  continues  to  remain  invisible,  both 
while  present  in  the  body  and  when  it  leaves  it. 

"  You  know,  my  children,  that  nothing  more  resem- 
bles death  than  sleep;  and  the  sleep  of  souls  chiefly  pro- 
claims their  divinity,  for  many  of  them  foresee  the  future 
and  show  what  they  will  become  when  they  shall  be 
freed  from  the  prison  of  the  body."  * 

Sir  Thomas  Brown  saw  so  little  difference  be- 
tween sleep  and  death  that  he  dared  not  lie  down 
in  his  bed  at  night  without  saying  his  prayers 
and  having  a  colloquy  with  God.  He  says: 

"  We  are  somewhat  more  than  ourselves  in  our  sleep, 
and  the  slumber  of  the  body  seems  to  be  but  the  waking 
of  the  soul.  It  is  the  litigation  of  sense,  but  the  liberty 
of  reason,  and  our  waking  conceptions  do  not  match 
the  fancies  of  our  sleeps.  I  am  no  way  facetious  nor 
disposed  for  the  mirth  and  galliardize  of  company. 
Yet  in  one  dream  I  can  compose  a  whole  comedy,  be- 
hold the  action,  apprehend  the  jests,  and  laugh  myself 

*  Cicero,  De  Senectute,  ch.  xxii. 
162 


Sir  Thomas  Brown 

awake  at  the  conceits  thereof.  Were  my  memory  as 
faithful  as  my  reason  is  then  fruitful,  I  would  never 
study  but  in  my  dreams,  and  this  time  also  would  I 
choose  for  my  devotions ;  but  our  grosser  memories 
have  then  so  little  hold  of  our  abstracted  understandings 
that  they  forget  the  story,  and  can  only  relate  to  our 
awaked  souls  a  confused  and  broken  tale  of  that  that 
hath  passed. 

"  Thus  it  is  sometimes  observed  that  men  some- 
times upon  the  hour  of  their  departure  do  speak  and 
reason  above  themselves;  for  then  the  soul,  beginning 
to  be  freed  from  the  ligaments  of  the  body,  begins  to 
reason  like  herself  and  to  discourse  in  a  strain  above 
mortality. 

"  We  term  sleep  a  death,  and  yet  it  is  waking  that 
kills  us  and  destroys  those  spirits  that  are  the  house  of 
life.  It  is  indeed  a  part  of  life  that  best  expresses  death. 

"  It  is  that  death  by  which  we  may  be  said  literally 
to  die  daily — a  death  which  Adam  died  before  his  mor- 
tality ;  a  death  whereby  we  live  a  middle  and  moderating 
point  between  life  and  death;  in  fine,  so  like  death,  I 
dare  not  trust  it  without  my  prayers  and  a  half  adieu 
unto  the  world,  and  take  my  farewell  in  a  colloquy  with 
God."  * 

We  have  from  the  same  distinguished  physician 
the  following  lines,  in  which  the  identity  of  the 
states  of  sleep  and  death  is,  if  possible,  more  dis- 
tinctly asserted :  f 

*  Sir  Thomas  Brown,  b.  1605,  d.  1682.  Religio  Medici, 
p.  131. 

t  Evening  Hymn,  by  Sir  Thomas  Brown. 

163 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Sleep  is  a  death;  0  make  me  try, 
By  sleeping,  what  it  is  to  die; 
And  as  gently  lay  my  head 
On  my  grave,  as  now  my  bed. 
Howe'er  I  rest,  great  God,  let  me 
Awake  again  at  least  with  Thee. 
And  thus  assured,  behold  I  lie, 
Securely,  or  to  wake  or  die. 
These  are  my  drowsy  days;  in  vain 
I  do  now  wake  to  sleep  again: 
O  come  that  hour,  when  I  shall  never 
Sleep  again,  but  wake  forever." 

When  these  verses  were  written,  Sir  Thomas 
might  have  had  in  his  mind  the  following  lines 
of  Heinrich  Meibon,  an  Austrian  poet  -  laureate, 
who  died  when  Brown  was  but  twenty  years  old : 

"  Alma  quies  optata  veni ;  nam  sic  sine  vita 
Vivere  quam  suave  est.  sic  sine  morte  mori."  * 

Henry  Vaughan,  the  precursor  of  Wordsworth 
as  the  interpreter  of  the  mystical  and  symbolical 
aspects  of  nature,  in  his  verses  entitled  "The 
Morning  Watch,"  has  the  following  lines,  quoted 
in  the  Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Kettlewell,  by 

Francis  Lee: 

"  Prayer  is 

The  world  in  tune, 
A  Spirit  Voice 
And  Vocall  joyes, 

*  Come,  refreshing  sleep,  we  pray ; 
For  without  life  how  sweet  to  live; 
Thus  without  death  to  die. 

164 


The  Morning  Watch 

Whose  Echo  is  heaven's  blisse. 

O  let  me  climbe 

When  I  lye  down.     The  pious  soul  by  nighte 
Is  like  a  clouded  starre,  whose  beames,  though  said 

To  shed  their  light 

Under  some  cloud, 

Yet  are  above. 

And  shine  and  move 
Beyond  that  mystic  shroud. 

So  in  my  bed, 

That  curtained  grave,  though  sleep  like  ashes  hide 
My  lamp  and  life,  both  shall  in  Thee  abide." 


CHAPTER  XI 

Whosoever  shall  say,  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger 
of  the  hell  of  fire." 


IF  I  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  carry  any 
of  my  readers  with  me  thus  far,  I  hope  they  will 
be  prepared  to  concede  that  any,  even  a  partial, 
suspension  of  our  consciousness  weakens  to  a 
corresponding  extent  our  bondage  to  the  phenom- 
enal or  material  world;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  man  who  allows  himself  to  be  too  long 
and  too  much  interested  in  any  worldly  subject  or 
employ  sooner  or  later  is  liable  to  unbalance  his 
mind  and  become  at  first  a  crank,  and  ultimately 
a  lunatic. 

And  this  invites  a  consideration  of  some  of 
the  effects  of  the  occasional  interruptions  of  any 
current  of  thought  or  diversion  of  our  mind  from 
worldly  interests  that  are  becoming  so  absorbing 
as  to  threaten  our  spiritual  freedom. 

It  rarely  occurs  to  any  of  us  to  consider  how 
numerous  and  providential  these  interruptions  are, 
and  how  felicitously  they  supplement  the  divinely 
appointed  offices  of  sleep. 

How  many  of  our  household  and  family  cares, 
how  many  of  the  exactions  of  children,  of  society, 

166 


Supplementary  Sabbaths 

and  of  the  countless  interruptions  which  constitute 
the  woof  in  the  warp  of  every  man's  life,  are  provi- 
dentially thrust  upon  us  like  sleep,  weakening 
the  undue  hold  of  the  world  upon  our  affections. 
We  treat  many  of  them  as  trifles ;  at  more  of  them 
we  murmur  and  often  rudely  complain,  frequently 
not  shrinking  from  suicide,  never  thinking  that 
they  not  only  may  be,  but  are,  messengers  of 
mercy  —  supplementary  Sabbaths  of  divine  ap- 
pointment. 

It  is  a  prevailing  impression,  intrenched  behind 
numerous  proverbs,  that  all  our  time  during  our 
waking  hours  not  employed  in  the  prosecution 
of  what  may  be  generically  called  business  is 
wasted,  that  a  man  who  is  not  working  for  some 
worldly  purpose  to  some  worldly  end  is  an  idle 
man,  and  that  an  idle  man  is  a  drone,  of  no  use 
to  society,  and,  if  our  race  were  as  wise  as  the 
bee,  we  would  expel  him  from  it. 

This,  as  a  rule,  is  a  great  delusion.  The  man 
who  "  sits  silent " — to  use  a  phrase  of  the  Society 
of  Friends — may  certainly  have  one  great  ad- 
vantage of  the  busy  man,  for  if  not  making  the 
best  possible  use  of  his  time,  he  is  less  likely  to 
be  the  slave  of  this  -  worldliness  than  the  busy 
man.  His  mind  is  more  open  and  accessible  to 
spiritual  impressions,  or,  if  you  please,  less  liable 
to  be  preoccupied  with  worldly  and  selfish  matters, 
than  the  more  worldly  man. 

It  strikes  most  of  us  as  a  very  original  and 
surprising  conceit  of  Milton,  though  it  ought 
167 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

to  be  with  all  of  us  the  perfection  of  common- 
place, that 

"  He  also  serves  who  only  stands  and  waits." 

But  how  few  there  are  in  this  driving  age  who 
really  take  any  time  to  "wait,"  to  listen  to  the 
still,  small  voices,  to  reflect,  to  dream.  Instead 
of  thinking  themselves,  they  get  the  people  of  the 
press,  the  forum,  or  the  market-place,  to  think 
for  them. 

Nothing  is  spiritually  more  impoverishing  for 
a  man  than  to  allow  himself  no  time  for  dreaming ; 
to  feed  habitually,  if  not  exclusively,  upon  other 
people's  thoughts,  and  rarely  or  never  upon  his 
own.  In  that  respect  children  ordinarily  have 
the  advantage  of  adults,  the  world  not  having 
yet  reduced  their  imaginations  to  its  stupefying 
bondage.  In  the  language  of  the  greatest  of  Ro- 
man satirists,  in  his  quest  of  the  means  of  living 
man  forgets  the  ends  of  life.  He  fancies  himself 
the  source  and  proprietor  of  the  power  he  wields, 
and  that  the  "  kingdom,  power,  and  glory  "  is  not 
his  Creator's  but  his  own. 

Joseph  was  called  by  his  brethren  a  dreamer. 
These  brethren  were  no  mean  types  of  modern 
society,  which  is  constantly  laying  violent  hands 
upon  our  faculties  for  dreaming,  for  waiting, 
and  for  thinking.  Of  the  sisters  of  Lazarus,  the 
modern  world  sympathizes  most  with  Martha, 
who  was  careful  and  troubled  about  her  house- 
168 


Supplementary  Sabbaths 

keeping;  but  it  was  not  without  a  good  reason 
that  Jesus  commended  Mary. 

We  never  know  why  it  rains  just  as  we  are 
setting  out  on  a  picnic;  why  a  child  falls  sick 
as  we  are  about  to  embark  on  a  journey;  why 
the  news  of  a  death  in  the  family  prevents  our 
going  to  a  dinner  or  a  ball  on  which  we  had  set 
our  heart;  why  the  bank  failed  in  which  we  had 
left  our  money.  Still  less  do  we  know  from  what 
evils  they  may  have  shielded  us.  We  should 
never  forget  that  none  of  our  disappointments 
are  fortuitous,  nor  that  one  of  the  most  obvious 
and  constant  advantages  we  derive  from  them 
is  the  same  as  that  for  which  we  are  in  a  larger 
degree  indebted  to  sleep. 

Even  sickness,  the  most  familiar  and  universal 
deranger  of  the  plans  of  men,  is  in  most  cases 
the  result  of  too  much  this-worldliness,  and  also 
the  most  effective  cure  of  it. 

In  taking  leave  of  his  pupils  at  the  College  of 
Charlemagne  in  1841,  in  consequence  of  failing 
health,  Jouffroy  said:  "Disease  is  certainly  a 
grace  with  which  God  favors  us — a  sort  of  spirit- 
ual retreat  which  He  provides  us,  that  we  may 
recognize  ourselves,  find  ourselves,  and  restore 
to  our  sight  the  true  view  of  things." 

One  of  the  greatest  problems  with  which  psy- 
chologists have  been  puzzled  has  been  to  ascertain 
the  moral  condition  of  an  insane  person  —  that 
is,  of  a  person  who  attaches  undue  and  dispro- 
portionate value  to  privileges  and  distinctions 

169 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

of  this  world;  whether  it  is,  morally,  a  progres- 
sive, a  passive,  or  a  retrogressive  state;  and,  if 
not  progressive,  how  such  a  state  is  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  that  love  of  God  which  is  supposed  to  be 
always  operative  over  all  his  works. 

When  Jesus  was  told  that  his  father  and  mother 
were  without,  waiting  for  Him,  He  replied :  "  Know 
ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  father's  business?" 
Jesus  is  always  about  his  Father's  business; 
always  knocking  at  every  man's  door,  trying  to 
arrest  his  attention,  and  waiting  for  an  invita- 
tion to  come  in  and  sup  with  him.  He  cannot  be 
presumed  ever  to  leave  one  of  his  children  in  a 
condition  by  night  or  by  day  when  the  process 
of  their  regeneration,  which  is  the  end  and  final 
purpose  of  their  creation,  cannot  progress. 

When  we  cease  to  be  susceptible  of  spiritual 
growth  in  this  world  our  life  in  it  necessarily 
ceases. 

God  cannot  be  suspected  of  providing  life  and 
a  terrestrial  environment  in  this  world  for  any 
except  to  educate  them  for  a  higher  life.  A  con- 
trary supposition  must  assume  that  the  Omnipo- 
tent and  the  Omniscient  could  permit  any  waste  of 
his  energy.  That  is  not  supposable.  Hence  we 
are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  if  lunatics  and 
idiots  have  reached  their  spiritual  growth,  and 
are  capable  of  no  more  spiritual  improvement, 
it  is  as  idle  to  suppose  that  their  Creator  would 
continue  to  supply  them  with  his  breath  of  life 
as  that  He  should  continue  to  supply  sap  to  a 
170 


Divine  Energy  Never  Wasted 

dead  tree.  No  one's  days  can  be  presumed  to 
continue  an  hour  longer  than  he  possesses  the 
ability  to  choose  between  good  and  evil  and  is 
capable  of  being  fashioned  into  a  less  imperfect 
image  of  his  Creator.  It  is  for  that,  and  that 
only,  we  are  put  into  this  world ;  and  there  is  no 
power  willing  and  competent  to  keep  us  here  a 
moment  after  that  ability  fails  us.  We  are  forced, 
therefore — at  least,  every  Christian  is  forced — by 
a  logical  necessity  to  the  conclusion  that  divine 
grace  is  just  as  operative  with  the  wildest  demo- 
niac and  the  most  helpless  idiot  as  it  ever  was 
with  the  apostles  Paul  and  John. 

The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  insanity  is  the 
more  or  less  complete  obscuration  of  the  victim's 
mental  appreciation  of  one  or  more  of  the  most 
familiar  laws  which  govern  the  phenomenal  world. 
He  seems  to  live — a  part  of  the  time,  at  least — 
in  quite  a  different  world  from  that  in  which  sane 
people  about  him  are  living.  He  even  becomes 
to  himself  an  entirely  different  person  or  object 
from  what  he  appears  to  be  to  others. 

Charles  Lamb  has  told  us  that  during  the  early 
part  of  his  life  he  was  constrained  to  retire  to  a 
lunatic  asylum,  where  he  was  detained  for  sev- 
eral months.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Coleridge, 
written  a  few  years  after  his  recovery,  he  said: 

"  At  some  future  time  I  will  amuse  you  with  an  ac- 
count, as  full  as  my  memory  will  permit,  of  the  strange 
turn  my  frenzy  took.     I  look  back  upon  it  at  times  with 
171 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

a  gloomy  kind  of  envy ;  for  while  it  lasted  I  had  many, 
many  hours  of  pure  happiness.  Dream  not,  Coleridge, 
of  having  tasted  all  the  grandeur  and  wildness  of  fancy 
till  you  have  gone  mad." 

Is  not  a  lunatic  in  much  the  same  condition 
as  a  person  dreaming,  partially  sensible  of  the 
phenomenal  world  and  partially  insensible  of  it? 
He  will  talk  coherently  for  a  time  about  some 
things,  incoherently  about  others  at  other  times, 
but  in  a  way  that  shows  his  mind  is  only  partially 
alive  to  the  relations  of  this  world;  so  that  what 
he  says  or  does  may  be  as  inconsequential  as 
what  we  ordinarily  remember  of  a  dream.  Yet 
his  mind  is  obviously  quite  as  active  when  his 
talk  is  incoherent  as  when  it  is  coherent.  May 
he  not  be  as  sane  as  any  other  man  appears  to 
be  in  a  dream?  May  not  his  attention  be  divided 
between  the  two  worlds  which,  like  the  dreamer, 
he  seems  to  inhabit?  May  not  the  society  in 
which  he  finds  himself  at  times  when  to  others 
he  seems  insane  be  as  real  as  any  other? — and 
may  not  agencies  be  at  work  as  constantly  for  his 
regeneration  as  for  any  other  of  God's  children? 

Insanity  has  many  causes,  but  the  kind  of 
insanity  with  which  we  are  most  familiar  results 
from  a  disproportionate  activity  of  some  psychic 
qualities:  ambition,  avarice,  vanity,  an  undue 
estimate  of  our  importance  in  the  regulation  of 
the  world,  which,  whether  inherited  or  acquired, 
induce  a  disproportionate  activity  of  certain  emo- 
172 


Lunacy  is  Disproportion 

tions,  which  gradually,  like  all  our  appetites, 
grow  by  what  they  feed  on,  until  they  overmaster 
the  reason  and  disqualify  one  for  taking  the  pre- 
cautions and  avoiding  the  practices  and  habits 
for  which  they  lust. 

One  of  the  first  evidences  of  this  loss  of  balance 
is  usually  insomnia.  Most  suicides  are,  direct- 
ly or  indirectly,  attributable  to  the  same  cause. 
But  where,  I  may  be  asked,  are  the  evidences  of 
divine  love  in  such  dispensations?  That  ques- 
tion may  be  most  conveniently  answered  by  ask- 
ing another:  What  would  be  the  consequences 
of  allowing  a  person  whose  vanity  or  ambition, 
or  other  inordinate  appetite,  led  him  to  the  in- 
dulgence of  such  excesses  for  its  gratification, 
if  its  progress  were  not  arrested  by  the  impair- 
ment of  other  faculties  that  go  to  make  up  the 
balance  of  a  healthy  character,  but  over  which 
his  reason,  without  being  seriously  impaired, 
had  ceased  to  have  control?  He  would  evidently 
become  by  degrees  a  monster — such  a  monster 
as  to  be  capable  of  any  crime,  and  entirely  in- 
accessible to  any  rectifying  spiritual  influences. 

We  are  all  of  us  more  or  less  familiar  with  the 
perils  we  have  providentially  escaped  through 
our  disappointments  and  reverses  in  life.  Are  we 
not  all  in  a  certain  sense  like  lunatics — victims 
of  a  more  or  less  unbalanced  mind?  And  is  not 
the  work  of  spiritual  regeneration  simply  the 
effort,  through  divine  aid,  to  restore  that  balance? 
And  in  the  proportion  that  a  lunatic  is  disquali- 
173 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

fied  to  take  a  sensible  and  rational  interest  in 
the  phenomenal  world,  may  he  riot  to  that  extent 
be  made  accessible  to  regenerating  influences  of 
a  similar  character  with  those  we  have  supposed 
to  be  operative  during  the  suspension  of  our  con- 
sciousness in  sleep? 

No  one  has  ever  ventured  to  sneer  at  Dryden's  re- 
mark that  "  Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near 
allied/'  One  can  easily  be  persuaded  by  a  ref- 
erence to  the  biographies  of  men  of  genius  that 
this  poet's  words  deserve  to  be  taken  quite  seri- 
ously. 

Lucretius,  the  greatest  poet  of  ancient  Italy, 
and  Tasso,  the  greatest  poet  of  modern  Italy, 
both  wrote  the  works  to  which  they  owe  their 
fame  with  posterity  during  the  interruptions  of 
frequent  attacks  of  lunacy.  The  former  is  said 
by  St.  Jerome  to  have  died  by  his  own  hand  at 
the  comparatively  early  age  of  forty-four,  leaving 
unfinished  that  greatest  monument  of  Roman 
literary  genius,  the  De  Rerum  Natura. 

Tasso,  like  Socrates,  believed  he  had  a  familiar 
spirit,  or  genius,  that  was  pleased  to  talk  with 
him,  and  from  whom  he  learned  things  never  be- 
fore heard  of. 

Caesar  was  an  epileptic  and  subject  to  cerebral 
disorder.  Charles  V.  was  an  epileptic;  he  took 
refuge  from  his  throne  in  a  monastery,  where  he 
had  his  own  funeral  rites  celebrated  in  his  pres- 
ence— two  of  the  many  evidences  he  gave  of  an 
unbalanced  mind.  His  mother  was  insane,  and 
174 


Lunacy  is  Disproportion 

his  grandfather,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  died,  at 
the  comparatively  early  age  of  sixty-two,  in  a 
state  of  profound  melancholia. 

Linnaeus  died  in  a  state  of  senile  dementia. 

Raphael  had  more  or  less  of  the  suicidal 
mania. 

Pascal  could  not  bear  to  see  his  father  and 
mother  together,  though  pleased  to  see  either 
separately;  neither  could  he  see  water  without 
transports  of  vexation. 

Walter  Scott,  during  the  latter  portion  of  his 
life,  had  visions  betokening  an  unbalanced  mind. 

Michael  Angelo  attempted  to  starve  himself  to 
death,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  interference  of 
his  physician. 

Richelieu  had  attacks  of  insanity.  His  elder 
brother  committed  suicide,  and  his  sister  also 
was  insane. 

Descartes  imagined  himself  followed  by  an  in- 
visible person  urging  him  to  pursue  his  investi- 
gations in  search  of  the  Absolute. 

Goethe  fancied  he  saw  the  image  of  himself 
coming  to  meet  him. 

Cromwell  had  violent  attacks  of  melancholia, 
and  a  sickly,  neuropathic  constitution  from  his 
birth. 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  suffered  all  his  life 
from  an  unbalanced  mind,  and  not  infrequently 
from  attacks  of  acute  delirium  and  maniacal  ex- 
citation. He  died  from  an  apoplectic  attack. 

Mohammed  was  epileptic,  and  claimed  to  be 
175 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

a  messenger  from  God  and  to  have  had  inter- 
views with  the  Angel  Gabriel. 

Moliere  was  a  neuropath,  and  any  delay  or 
derangement  of  his  plans  would  throw  him  into 
convulsions. 

Mozart  was  subject  to  fainting  fits  before  and 
during  the  composition  of  his  famous  "  Requiem." 
He  imagined  messengers  were  sent  to  him  to 
announce  his  end.  He  died  at  the  early  age  of 
thirty-six  of  cerebral  hydropsy. 

Cuvier  is  said  to  have  died  of  a  disease  of  the 
nervous  centres.  He  lost  all  his  children  by 
cerebral  fever. 

Condillac  was  a  somnambulist. 

Bossuet  is  known  occasionally  to  have  lost  the 
faculty  of  speech,  and  even  of  understanding. 

Madame  de  Stae'l  died  in  a  delirium  said  to 
have  lasted  several  months.  She  had  a  nervous 
habit  of  rolling  between  her  fingers  small  strips 
of  paper,  an  ample  supply  of  which  was  kept 
on  her  mantel-piece.  She  had  a  nervous  fear  of 
being  cold  in  the  tomb,  and  desired  to  be  enveloped 
in  furs  before  burial. 

Swift  from  an  early  period  of  his  life  was  queer, 
and  "  died  at  the  top,"  a  violent  maniac.  He  was 
called  the  "Mad  Parson." 

Shelley  suffered  from  somnambulism,  disturbing 
dreams,  and  an  excitable  and  impetuous  temper- 
ament, which  increased  with  age.  He  was  called 
"Mad  Shelley." 

Samuel  Johnson  was  a  hypochondriac,  had 
176 


Lunacy  is  Disproportion 

hallucinations   and    convulsions,    and    was   con- 
stantly apprehensive  of  insanity. 

Southey  wrote  verses  before  he  was  eight  years 
of  age,  and  died  an  imbecile. 

Cowper  was  attacked  with  melancholia  at  the 
age  of  twenty,  from  which  he  suffered  for  a  year. 
It  subsequently  returned.  He  tells  of  attempts  at 
suicide,  and  he  would  have  hanged  himself  had 
not  the  rope  broken  from  which  he  suspended 
himself. 

Keats  was  subject  to  fits  of  despondency,  and 
was  so  nervous  that  the  glitter  of  the  sun  or  the 
sight  of  a  flower  made  him  tremble. 

Coleridge  was  a  precocious  child  and  had  a 
morbid  imagination.  When  thirty  years  of  age 
he  took  to  the  use  of  opium. 

Burns  tells  us  that  his  constitution  from  the 
beginning  "was  blasted  with  a  deep,  incurable 
taint  of  melancholia  which  poisons  my  existence." 

George  Eliot  was  extremely  sensitive  to  terror 
in  the  night,  and  remained  "a  quivering  fear" 
throughout  her  whole  life. 

De  Quincey,  in  consequence  of  general  nervous 
irritability,  took  opium  to  excess. 

Alfred  de  Musset  had  attacks  which  George 
Sand  described  as  manifesting  a  nervous  con- 
dition approaching  delirium.  He  had  a  suicidal 
inclination.  He  had  hallucinations  which  com- 
pelled him  to  ask  his  brother  to  assist  him  in  dis- 
tinguishing it  from  real  things. 

Carlyle  showed  extreme  irritability,  and  spoke 
177 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

of  himself  in  his  diary:  "Nerves  all  inflamed 
and  torn  up,  body  and  mind  in  a  hag-ridden 
condition." 

Bach  and  Handel  were  both  very  irritable, 
great  sufferers  from  nervous  troubles,  and  both 
died  of  apoplexy. 

Newton  in  his  latter  years  was  subject  to  a 
melancholia  which  deprived  him  of  all  power  of 
thought.  In  a  letter  to  Locke  he  says  that  he 
"passed  some  months  without  having  a  consist- 
ency of  mind." 

Alexander  the  Great  had  from  infancy  neurosis 
of  the  muscles  of  the  neck,  and  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-two,  exhibiting  all  the  symptoms  of  acute 
delirium  tremens.  Both  his  parents  were  disso- 
lute, and  his  brother  was  an  idiot. 

Lamartine  was  a  crank,  like  his  father  before 
him. 

William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  was  descended 
from  a  family  exhibiting  many  peculiarities  and 
mental  disproportions  approaching  alienation. 

Pope  was  rickety  and  subject  to  hallucina- 
tions. 

Lord  Byron  was  scrofulous,  rachitic,  imagined 
he  was  visited  by  a  ghost,  which  he  attributed 
to  the  over-excitability  of  his  brain.  Lord  Dudley 
did  not  disguise  his  conviction  that  Byron  was 
insane. 

Napoleon  I.  feared  apoplexy  and  was  subject 
to  hallucinations. 

There  is  no  occasion  to  enlarge  this  list,  as  it 
178 


Lunacy  Providential 

might  be  indefinitely.  In  the  instances  we  have 
selected  there  is  sufficient  evidence  that  insanity 
probably  is,  and  certainly  may  be,  a  providential 
interruption  of  degenerating  and  pernicious  ten- 
dencies. Even  with  our  short  sight,  these  ten- 
dencies may  be  traced  to  an  unequal  and  dispro- 
portioned  interest  in  some  of  our  worldly  affairs 
and  the  consequent  enfeeblement  of  others  in- 
tended to  be  regulating  or  compensating  facul- 
ties. But  it  is  blasphemous  to  suppose  that  the 
class  of  men  so  conspicuous  for  their  usefulness 
in  the  world,  to  whose  unbalanced  minds  attention 
has  just  been  called,  were  not  to  the  last,  as 
much  as  ever,  the  objects  of  God's  uninterrupt- 
ed and  inexhaustible  love  and  mercy.  There 
is  really  no  more  reason  for  supposing  there  is 
such  an  interruption  in  the  case  of  lunatics  than 
there  is  for  a  like  supposition  in  the  case  of  those 
whose  consciousness  is  suspended  by  sleep.  The 
impairment  of  some  of  their  faculties  may  have 
been  rendered  necessary  to  prevent  their  confir- 
mation in  evils  to  which  they  may  have  been 
prone,  just  as  all  of  us  are  more  or  less  withheld 
in  our  slumbers,  and  thus  made  amenable  to 
spiritual  influences  to  which  otherwise  they  would 
have  been  inaccessible. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  changes  here 
referred  to  are  physical  or  the  results  of  morbid 
cerebration,  as  was  so  flippantly  taught  not  many 
years  ago  by  many  eminent  French  physicians; 
for  we  have  abundant  medical  authority  to  the 
179 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

contrary.  "  Frequent  autopsies,"  says  Chauvet,* 
"reveal  no  appreciable  difference  between  the 
brain  of  a  lunatic  and  a  man  of  unimpaired  men- 
tal integrity.  Such  is  the  affirmation  of  all  con- 
scientious physicians  who  have  made  a  special 
study  of  mental  maladies." 

It  is  a  medical  aphorism  as  old  at  least  as  Hip- 
pocrates that  a  sufferer  from  a  painful  disease 
generally  loses  all  consciousness  of  it  on  becoming 
deranged.  A  disorder  of  the  mind  replaces  the 
disorder  of  the  body.  In  illustration  of  this,  De 
Bonnenhausen,  on  the  authority  of  the  chron- 
icler Bulan,  Hist.  Seer.  i.  12,  quotes  the  following 
experience  of  the  grandmother  of  Mirabeau: 

"This  femme  bigote,"  as  he  calls  her,  "eighty 
years  of  age  and  emaciated  to  a  skeleton,  was 
attacked,  in  consequence  of  a  wrong  treatment 
for  the  gout,  with  a  furious  nymphomania.  From 
that  moment  she  seemed  to  renew  her  youth; 
her  monthly  courses  reappeared.  This  healthy 
period  lasted  for  four  years,  but  she  rapidly  sank 
and  expired  with  the  return  of  reason." 

Here  is  a  case  of  a  person  experiencing  for  a 
series  of  years  an  extraordinary  rejuvenescence 
of  strength  and  respite  from  pain  by  being  to  a 
considerable  extent  cut  off  from  ordinary  relations 
and  communication  with  the  phenomenal  world. 
She  was  bigote,  says  De  Bonnenhausen.  Was 


*  Nouveaux  Principes  de  Philosophic  MGdicale,  par  le  Dr.  N. 
M.  Chauvet. 

180 


Unclean  Spirits 

not  Providence  clearly  dealing  with  this  infirmity 
as  it  had  once  dealt  with  St.  Paul's,  by  cutting 
off  her  relations  with  an  environment  which  had 
developed  that  mental  disease,  and  reducing  her 
to  a  condition  which  protected  her  from  its  in- 
fluence, substituting  a  love  for  others,  though  on 
the  natural  plane,  in  the  place,  perhaps,  of  a  mor- 
bid self-righteousness? 

When  Jesus  and  his  disciples  came  down  from 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  there  came  a  man 
who,  kneeling  down  to  Him,  said,  "Lord,  have 
mercy  on  my  son:  for  he  is  a  lunatic  and  sore 
vexed:  and  oft-times  he  falleth  into  the  fire,  and 
oft  into  the  water.  And  I  brought  him  to  thy 
disciples,  and  they  could  not  cure  him."  We 
are  told  that  "Jesus  rebuked  the  devil,  and  he 
departed  out  of  him ;  and  the  child  was  cured  from 
that  very  hour." 

While  Jesus  was  in  the  borders  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  a  Syrophoenician  woman  whose  young 
daughter  had  an  unclean  spirit  "besought  him 
that  he  would  cast  forth  the  devil  out  of  her  daugh- 
ter." For  the  faith  exhibited  by  this  mother,  He 
said :  "  Go  thy  way ;  the  devil  is  gone  out  of  thy 
daughter.  And  when  she  was  come  to  her  house, 
she  found  the  devil  gone  out  and  her  daughter 
laid  upon  the  bed."  * 

The  man  with  an  unclean  spirit,  who  could 
not  be  bound  even  with  a  chain,  and  whom  no 

*  Mark  vii.  26-30. 

181 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

man  could  tame,  when  he  saw  Jesus,  ran  and 
worshipped  Him.  Jesus  bade  the  evil  spirit  come 
out  of  him,  and  the  demoniac  was  left  clothed 
and  in  his  right  mind.  He  then  begged  to  remain 
with  Jesus,  but  Jesus  made  a  missionary  of  him, 
as  later  he  did  of  Paul  of  Tarsus.  * 

Jesus  may  be  seen  by  the  feeble-minded  to-day 
just  as  distinctly  as  when  seen  by  this  demoniac 
in  Syria. 

While  we  are  permitted  to  assume  that  the  in- 
sane and  the  idiotic,  so  far  as  they  are  detached 
from  the  phenomenal  world,  may  be,  to  the  same 
limited  extent,  in  the  condition  of  the  sleeper  and 
in  a  degree  sharing  the  advantages  which  the 
condition  of  sleep  is  supposed  to  provide,  it  must 
not  be  inferred  that  any  form  or  degree  of  in- 
sanity is  in  itself  desirable,  otherwise  than  as  it 
tends  to  arrest  spiritual  tendencies  of  a  more  peril- 
ous character. 

Insanity  may  be  presumed  to  be  in  most  cases 
the  fruit  of  either  deliberate  or  hereditary  ten- 
dencies which  conflict  with  divine  order.  The 
cases  with  which  we  are  all  of  us  most  familiar 
are  of  persons  who  have  become  insane  by  over- 
work or  by  resorting  to  artificial  means  for  super- 
seding the  demands  of  their  constitution  for  sleep. 
As  these  excesses  are  commonly  the  results  of 
inordinate  ambition  or  vanity  or  greed,  and  when 
these  spiritual  infirmities  reach  a  stage  where 

*  Mark  v.  2-20. 
182 


Lunacy  Arrests  Spiritual  Degeneration 

any  voluntary  arrest  of  them  is  hopeless,  a  merci- 
ful Providence  may  be  presumed  so  to  modify 
their  relations  with  the  phenomenal  world  as  to 
prevent  further  spiritual  degeneration.  In  some 
cases  the  ministrations  of  Jesus  warrant  us  in 
thinking  that  the  work  of  regeneration  is  allowed 
to  progress.  All  that  can  be  said  with  confidence 
of  the  influence  of  insanity  is  that  in  detaching 
its  victim  from  habitual  this-worldliness  it  so  far 
resembles  the  operation  of  sleep,  and  is  a  real  and 
usually  an  unappreciated  evidence  of  divine 
mercy.  A  French  investigator  has  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  brains  of  military  men  give 
out  most  quickly ;  that  out  of  every  100,000  men 
of  the  army  or  naval  profession,  199  are  hope- 
less lunatics.  Of  the  liberal  professions,  artists 
are  the  first  to  succumb  to  the  brain-strain.  Is 
there  nothing  in  the  inspirations  and  aspirations 
of  these  pursuits  to  explain  these  results? 


CHAPTER  XII 

Why  we  are  not  permitted  to  be  conscious  of  the  ex- 
periences of  the  soul  in  sleep — How  we  should  culti- 
vate sleep — Drugs  hostile  to  sleep — Count  Tolstoi  on 
alcoholic  stimulants — All  virtues  favor  sleep ;  all  vices 
discourage  it.  

IF  by  the  immutable  laws  of  our  being  the 
hours  consecrated  to  sleep  are,  as  I  have  attempted 
to  show,  of  such  vital  importance  to  our  spiritual 
development,  the  ordering  of  our  life,  so  far  as 
it  may  affect  our  sleep,  assumes  a  corresponding 
importance.  No  argument  is  needed  to  prove 
that  we  should  make  it  our  study  to  avoid  as  far 
as  possible  everything  calculated  to  interfere  in 
the  slightest  degree  with  its  completeness.  All 
such  disturbances  may  be  presumed  to  come 
from  our  phenomenal  life,  and  so  far,  at  any 
rate,  as  they  do,  they  impair  the  completeness 
of  our  isolation  from  the  world  and  its  works, 
and  violate  the  sacred  mysteries  to  which  it  is  the 
presumptive  purpose  of  sleep  to  admit  the  soul 
— our  real  self — for  the  reception  of  such  spiritual 
instruction  as  we  may  be  qualified  to  assimilate, 
without  bringing  away  with  us  any  knowledge 
that  can  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  our  will 

184 


Why  Unconscious  of  What  Occurs  in  Sleep 

or  with  our  personal  responsibility  for  what  we 
may  do  in  our  waking  hours. 

I  say  without  bringing  away  anything  that 
would  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  our  will,  be- 
cause what  goes  on  within  us  in  our  sleep  is  as 
sacred  a  mystery  as  any  of  the  mysteries  of  our 
eternal  sleep ;  nor  is  it  difficult  to  divine  a  sufficient 
purpose  for  that  mystery.  If  we  were  as  conscious 
of  our  sleeping  as  of  our  waking  life,  and  if  our 
external  memory,  as  Swedenborg  calls  it,  could 
bring  away  our  experiences  while  in  that  state; 
could  reveal  to  us  the  treasures  of  our  interior 
memory,  it  would  interfere  with  our  freedom  in 
precisely  the  same  way  and  degree  as  if  we  could 
foresee  the  influence  of  our  acts  and  plans  of  yes- 
terday upon  all  the  future  stages  of  our  existence. 
Such  knowledge  would  be  fatal  to  our  spiritual 
growth  and  to  the  freedom  of  our  will,  through 
which  only  righteousness  thrives;  would  give 
place  to  a  blind,  senseless  fatalism. 

We  may  speculate  about  the  purposes  of  Provi- 
dence as  revealed  in  the  sequence  of  the  events  of 
our  daily  life,  but  we  know  nothing,  and  think 
little,  if  anything,  of  them  when  they  occur.  It 
is  only  long  after  their  occurrence  that  we  begin 
to  realize  how  much  more  profoundly  they  af- 
fected the  tenor  of  our  lives  than  we  had  suspected 
they  would;  from  what  perils  we  had  been  pro- 
tected by  what  we  regarded  as  grievous  disap- 
pointments; from  what  temptations,  which  we 
could  never  have  resisted,  we  had  been  shielded 
185 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

by  our  ignorance,  by  our  weaknesses,  by  dis- 
couragements, by  poverty,  by  sickness,  etc.  If 
God  in  his  providence  makes  us  so  blind  to  the 
consequence  of  what  we  do  in  our  waking  hours, 
the  wisdom  of  which  experience  ultimately  compels 
us  not  only  to  admit  but  to  be  thankful  for,  there 
is  no  reason  to  question  the  divine  wisdom  in  con- 
cealing from  us  what  it  is  trying  to  do  for  us  in 
our  sleep  when  the  god  of  this  world  is  disarmed 
and  powerless. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  all  the  things 
done  in  what  is  called  civilized  society  that,  con- 
sciously and  unconsciously,  interfere  with  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  our  sleep.  A  volume 
would  not  suffice  for  such  a  record.  I  may  only 
speak  of  them  by  classes. 

First  in  importance  among  these  I  would  place 
what  we  take  into  our  mouths  under  the  name 
or  disguise  of  nourishment.  There  is  scarcely 
a  table  laid  in  all  our  broad  land  on  which  will 
not  be  found  more  or  less  of  the  enemies  of  whole- 
some sleep:  condiments  selected  primarily  to 
stimulate  the  appetite,  but  provoking  to  gluttony 
and  animal  indulgence,  regardless  of  the  divine 
purposes  for  which  we  were  endowed  with  these 
appetites,  and  with  power  both  to  guide  and  con- 
trol them.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  the  profoundest 
consideration  that  about  everything  we  take  into 
our  mouths,  not  simply  for  our  nourishment,  but 
to  provoke  our  appetites  and  for  the  sole  pleasure 
of  gratifying  them,  discourages  sleep. 
186 


Popular  Enemies  of  Sleep 

"If  one  wishes  to  make  others  do  wrong," 
says  Count  Tolstoi,*  "  he  alcoholizes  them.  They 
make  soldiers  drunk  before  sending  them  into 
battle.  At  the  time  of  the  assault  of  Sebasto- 
pol  all  the  French  soldiers  were  drunk.  It  is 
well  known  that  robbers,  brigands,  and  pros- 
titutes cannot  dispense  with  alcohol.  All  the 
world  agrees  that  the  consumption  of  these  nar- 
cotics has  for  its  object  stifling  the  remorse  of 
conscience;  and  yet,  in  cases  where  the  use 
of  these  exhilarants  does  not  result  in  assassi- 
nation, theft,  and  violence,  they  are  not  con- 
demned." 

To  the  defence  that  a  light  exhilaration — that 
is  to  say,  initial  drunkenness,  which  is  but  a 
partial  eclipse  of  the  judgment — cannot  produce 
very  important  consequences,  the  Count  makes 
this  clever  reply: 

"  A  famous  Russian  painter  one  day  corrected 
a  picture  made  by  one  of  his  pupils.  He  gave  a 
few  touches  of  his  pencil  here  and  there,  but  the 
result  was  such,  nevertheless,  that  the  pupil  cried 
out,  'You  made  but  two  or  three  marks  on  my 
picture,  and  I  find  it  completely  changed.'  The 
painter  replied,  'Art  does  not  begin  but  where 
marks  scarcely  perceptible  produce  great  changes.' 
These  remarks,"  he  adds,  "are  remarkably  just, 
not  only  in  relation  to  art,  but  all  the  conditions 
of  human  life." 

*  Translated  from  an  article  published  some  years  ago 
in  the  Revue  Rose. 

I87 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Dr.  Franklin,  in  a  letter  written  to  a  Miss  on 
the  art  of  procuring  pleasant  dreams,  said: 

"  In  general,  mankind,  since  the  improvement  of 
cookery,  eat  about  twice  as  much  as  nature  requires. 
Suppers  are  not  bad,  if  we  have  not  dined;  but  rest- 
less nights  naturally  follow  hearty  suppers  after  full 
dinners.  Indeed,  as  there  is  a  difference  in  constitu- 
tions, some  rest  well  after  these  meals;  it  costs  them 
only  a  frightful  dream,  and  an  apoplexy,  after  which 
they  sleep  till  doomsday." 

Among  the  antisoporifics,  next  in  importance 
come  the  apothecaries'  drug  -  poisons.  Of  these 
there  are  very  few  —  I  fear  none  —  the  direct  or 
secondary  action  of  which  is  not  hostile  to  sleep. 
The  uncorrupted  tastes  and  instincts  of  the  beasts 
of  the  field  reject  them  all,  as  well  in  sickness  as 
in  health. 

It  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  limitations 
of  what  we  call  civilization  that  the  one  art  or 
science  which  we  hedge  about  with  the  most  ar- 
bitrary laws  for  the  protection  of  its  priesthood 
and  ministrants,  and  which  is  relied  upon  to 
prevent  or  cure  our  diseases,  should  be  the  one 
organized  professional  body  which  practically 
employs  few,  if  any,  therapeutic  agencies  that 
do  not  impair,  discourage,  or  prevent  sleep,  and 
to  the  same  extent  shorten  life.  If  in  the  whole 
pharmacopoeia  of  those  who  claim  to  be  "the 
regular  medical  faculty"  there  is  a  single  drug 
which  is  not  a  poison  and  which  is  not  more  or 
188 


Drugs  Enemies  of  Sleep 

less  actively  hostile  to  sleep,  it  is  one  which  is 
scarcely,  if  ever,  used,  except  to  impress  the  im- 
agination rather  than  the  disorder  of  the  pa- 
tient. Should  any  of  my  readers  think  this 
statement  an  exaggeration  they  will  find  little 
difficulty  in  ascertaining  that  it  is  not.  The 
homoeopathists  are  compelled  by  the  fundamental 
law  of  their  therapeutics  to  ascertain  the  effects 
of  every  drug  by  testing  them  upon  persons  in 
sound  health.  In  that  way  they  have  stored 
up  in  their  literature  most  of  all  that  is  known 
of  the  direct  effects  of  all  the  drugs  that  have 
proved  to  be  sufficiently  reactionary  for  therapeu- 
tical purposes,  which  means  all  drugs  in  gen- 
eral use.  The  reader  has  only  to  turn  to  Jahr's 
Manual  of  Medicine  or  Herring's  Condensed  Ma- 
teria  Medica  to  satisfy  himself  of  the  insomniac 
influences  which  radiate  from  every  apothecary's 
shop.* 

*  Here  are  a  few  drugs  recorded  by  Jahr  under  a  single 
initial  letter,  with  the  symptoms  relating  to  sleep  for  which 
they  are  responsible : 

Aconitum  napellus — Sleeplessness  from  anxiety,  with 
constant  agitation  and  tossing ;  startings  in  sleep ;  anxious 
dreams  with  nightmare. 

Agnus  costus — Disturbed  sleep,  waking  with  a  start. 

Alumina — Nocturnal  sleep  too  light;  frequent  waking 
in  the  night;  nightmare;  during  the  night  anxiety,  agita- 
tion, and  tossing  about. 

Ambergris — Agitated  sleep  with  anxious  dreams;  start- 
ings  with  fright. 

Ammoniac — Sleep  unquiet  during  the  night;  numerous 
and  painful  dreams. 

Ammonia,     carbonate     of  —  Nightmare     when     falling 

189 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

With  drug -poisons  should  be  classed  nearly, 
if  not  quite,  all  fermented  drinks — the  most  costly 
part  of  most  people's  diet  who  indulge  in  them 
at  all — coffee,  tea,  tobacco,  spices,  and  most  of 
the  constantly  multiplying  tonics  and  condiments 
of  the  table.  All  of  them  have  a  tendency,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  discourage  or  impair  sleep,  and, 
as  such,  are  hostes  humani  generis.  Their  inter- 
ference with  sleep,  though  perhaps  the  most  seri- 
ous, is  very  far  from  being  their  only  pathoge- 
netic  influence. 

The  late  Dr.  Alonzo  Clark,  who  for  years  stood 
quite  at  the  head  of  his  profession  as  a  consult- 
ing physician  in  New  York  City,  is  quoted  as  au- 

asleep;  dreams  of  spectres,  death,  of  vermin,  and  of  quar- 
rels. 

Ammonium  causticum — Disturbed  sleep. 

Ammonium  muriaticum — Restlessness  before  midnight; 
many  dreams,  anxious,  terrific,  or  lascivious;  nocturnal 
sweat  after  midnight. 

Anacardium  orientale  (Malacca  bean) — Disturbed  sleep 
in  the  night ;  anxious  dreams,  disgusting  or  horrible,  with 
cries ;  lively  dreams  of  projects,  of  fire,  of  diseases,  of  deaths, 
and  of  dangers. 

Angustura  bark — Sleep  disturbed  by  frequent  dreams. 

Antimonium  crudum — Waking  with  fright  during  the 
night ;  dreams,  anxious,  horrible,  voluptuous,  or  painful, 
and  full  of  quarrelling. 

Arnica — Sleep  full  of  anxious  and  terrible  dreams  and 
waking  with  starts  and  fright ;  dreams  of  death,  of  mutilated 
bodies ;  giddiness  on  waking. 

Arsenicum — During  sleep,  startings  with  fright,  groans ; 
frequent  dreams  full  of  fears,  threats,  apprehensions. 

Assafcetida  —  Sleep  unrefreshing,  with  tossing  and  fre- 
quent waking. 

Aurum — Restless  sleep  with  anxious  dreams. 

190 


All  Drugs  Poisons 

thority  for  saying :  "  All  curative  agents,  so  called, 
are  poisons,  and,  as  a  consequence,  every  dose  di- 
minishes the  patient's  vitality."  I  doubt  whether 
this  view  of  drugs  would  be  seriously  contested  by 
any  of  his  professional  brethren  of  good  standing. 

The  late  venerable  Professor  Joseph  M.  Smith, 
M.D.,  said :  "  All  medicines  which  enter  the  circula- 
tion poison  the  blood  in  the  same  manner  as  do  the 
poisons  that  produce  the  disease.  Drugs  do  not 
cure  disease.  Digitalis  has  hurried  thousands  to 
the  grave.  Prussic  acid  was  once  extensively  used 
in  the  treatment  of  consumption,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  but  its  reputation  is  lost.  Thou- 
sands of  patients  were  treated  with  it,  but  not  a 
case  was  benefited.  On  the  contrary,  hundreds 
were  hurried  to  the  grave." 

Digitalis  is  regarded  by  old -school  physicians 
as  a  specific  for  heart-failure.  Here  are  its  symp- 
toms as  recorded  in  Jahr's  manual : 

Sleep  —  Drowsiness  in  the  day  and  somnolency  in- 
terrupted by  convulsive  vomiting;  at  night,  half  sleep 
with  agitation;  nocturnal  sleep,  interrupted  by  anxious 
dreams,  with  starts. 

R.  Clarke  Newton,  in  his  treatise  on  Opium  and 
Alcohol,  says: 

"  Sleeplessness  means  not  merely  unrest,  but  starva- 
tion of  the  cerebrum.  The  only  cause  for  regret  in 
these  cases  is  that  the  blunder  should  ever  be  commit- 
ted of  supposing  that  a  stupefying  drug  which  throws 
the  brain  into  a  condition  that  mimics  and  burlesques 
191 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sleep  can  do  good.  It  is  deceptive  to  give  narcotics 
in  a  case  of  this  type.  The  stupor  simply  masks  the 
danger.  Better  far  let  the  sleepless  patient  exhaust 
himself  than  stupefy  him.  Chloral  bromide  and  the 
rest  of  the  poisons  that  produce  a  semblance  of  sleep 
are  so  many  snares  in  such  cases.  Sleeplessness  is 
a  malady  of  the  most  formidable  character,  but  it  is 
not  to  be  treated  by  intoxicating  the  organ  upon  which 
the  stress  of  the  trouble  falls.  Suicide,  which  occurs 
at  the  very  outset  of  derangement,  and  is  apt  to  appear 
a  sane  act,  is  the  logical  issue  of  failure  of  nutrition  that 
results  from  want  of  sleep." 

It  is  a  fact  now  recognized  by  the  medical  pro- 
fession that  the  use  of  narcotics,  fermented  liquors, 
and  other  intoxicants  by  which  the  people  of  all 
nations  seek  pleasure  —  simple  oblivion  of  the 
troubles  of  life  or  of  its  sorrows,  of  its  chagrins 
or  of  destitution  —  produce  temporarily  precisely 
the  condition  in  which  a  man  finds  himself  in  a 
dream.  The  faculty  explain  it  by  lesions,  ob- 
structions, disorganizations  of  tissues,  cells,  nerve 
centres,  liver  and  kidneys,  etc.  These  are  phys- 
ical changes  incident  to  the  use  of  these  dis- 
organizing agencies.  In  point  of  fact,  it  is  these 
disorganizing  agencies  that  produce  the  partial, 
sometimes  temporary,  sometimes  chronic,  in- 
sensibility to  mental  or  physical  troubles  by  im- 
pairing our  consciousness  of  them,  just  as  our 
consciousness  of  them  is  totally  suspended  in 
sleep  and  partially  suspended  in  dreams  when 
we  have  begun  to  awake.  These  dreams  are 
192 


Alcoholic  Dreams 

sometimes  prolonged,  and  result  in  what  is  com- 
monly termed  dementia. 

Lasegue  tells  us  that  the  alcoholic  delirium 
is  not  a  delirium,  but  a  dream.*  Max -Simon 
says:  "The  alcoholic  patient  commences  his  de- 
lirium in  his  dream  during  sleep  and  continues 
it  on  awaking,  while  other  lunatics,  melancholies, 
paralytics,  maniacs,  find  in  sleep  a  truce  to  their 

delirium."  t 

At  first  the  dream  of  the  alcoholic  appears  as  a 
passing  trouble  and  ceases  on  awakening.  It  is 
only  a  nightmare.  After  a  while  the  dream  is 
prolonged  beyond  the  awakening,  and  it  exte- 
riorizes itself  in  a  sort  of  tranquillized  delirium. 
Finally,  auto  -  intoxication  reaches  its  maximum 
in  that  peculiar  mental  state  described  first  by  an 
eminent  French  physician  as  mental  confusion. 
The  recollection  of  the  dream  may  survive  the 
dream  itself  for  some  time,  and  become  a  sort  of 
subacute  delirium,  to  which  Baillarger  has  given 
the  name  of  fixed  ideas.$ 

While  this  similarity  between  dreams  and  a  per- 
son intoxicated  by  narcotics,  alcoholics,  hashish, 
or  any  of  the  thousand  drugs  to  which  people 
have  recourse  for  temporary  alleviation  of  pain 
or  sorrow,  distress  or  depression  of  any  kind,  is 

*  Lasdgue,  Archives  Generates  de  Mtdecine.     1881. 

t  Max-Simon,  Le  Monde  des  Reves.     Paris,  1882. 

%  Baillarger,  "  De  1'Influence  de  1'Etat  Interm6diaire  a  la 
Veille  et  au  Sommeil  sur  la  Production  des  Hallucinations." 
Annoles  Medico-Psychologiques.  1845. 

'3  193 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

so  universally  recognized  by  the  medical  faculty,  it 
seems  to  have  occurred  to  none  of  them  that  the 
remedy  for  relief  in  every  case  is  precisely  the 
same  as  that  which  is  sought  through  sleep  —  to 
make  us  insensible  to  our  troubles  and  forget  the 
world  in  which  they  originate.  Their  similarity 
to  dreams  consists  in  the  insensibility  produced 
by  these  drugs — that  is,  the  partial  suspension  of 
consciousness.  What  a  deplorable  fact  it  is  that, 
instead  of  sleep,  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  hu- 
man race  resort  to  these  noxious  substitutes  for 
it !  What  a  mercy  that  where  the  will  is  too  weak 
to  resist  the  temptation  to  resort  to  these  substi- 
tutes, "the  wisdom  of  their  wise  men  shall  per- 
ish, and  the  understanding  of  their  prudent  men 
shall  be  hid"!* 

Then  comes  the  strife  for  wealth,  and  power, 
and  position  among  men  ;  the  undue  accumulation 
of  cares  and  responsibilities,  the  result  in  most 
cases  of  unbridled  ambition,  vanity,  or  greed. 

It  is  the  middle-aged  and  old  who  suffer  most 
from  this  infirmity. 

"  Care  keeps  his  watch  in  every  old  man's  eye, 
And  where  he  lodges  sleep  can  never  lie; 
But  where  unbruised  youth,  with  unstuffed  brain, 
Doth  crouch  his  limbs,  there  sleep  doth  reign." 

Whenever  a  man  has  reached  threescore  -  and - 
ten,  and,  in  railway  parlance,  is  started  on  the 

*  Isaiah  xxix.  14. 
194 


Nature  an  Inexorable  Creditor 

down  grade,  he  should  study  to  simplify  his  life 
so  as  never  to  be  required  to  draw  upon  his  reserves, 
nor  work  under  pressure,  or  with  a  conscious 
overdraft  of  nervous  force.  A  neglect  of  this  pre- 
caution is  pretty  certain  to  interfere  with  both  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  our  sleep,  and  sooner  or 
later  to  compel  a  resort  to  stimulants  of  one  kind 
or  another,  by  which  we  borrow  for  the  day  the 
strength  of  to-morrow,  thus  speedily  to  become 
hopelessly  indebted  to  nature,  the  most  inexorable 
of  creditors. 

Speaking  of  reports,  which  but  too  frequently 
meet  our  eyes  in  the  public  prints,  of  men  promi- 
nent in  religious  movements  who  have  disgraced 
themselves  and  discredited  the  faith  they  professed 
by  ignominious  peculations,  embezzlements,  and 
frauds,  the  late  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody,  of  Harvard 
University,  said: 

"  We  are  not  surprised  that  these  instances  have 
been  placed  and  kept  prominently  before  the  community ; 
for  such  cases  are  so  rare  as  justly  to  arrest  grave  at- 
tention and  excite  emphatic  comment.  So  far  as  we 
know,  they  are,  all  of  them,  cases  in  which  there  had 
been  for  a  long  period  such  an  engrossment  in  multifari- 
ous, crowding,  and  perplexing  business  operations  that 
the  religious  life  was  physically  impossible,  the  quiet- 
ness essential  to  devotion  unattainable,  supersensual 
themes  of  thought  excluded  by  a  necessity,  self-imposed 
indeed,  but  imposed — there  is  reason  to  believe — before 
the  first  steps  in  the  direction  of  overt  guilt  and  shame. 
No  Christian  of  sane  mind  will  pretend  or  imagine  that 

195 


The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

church-going  with  the  inward  ear  closed  and  deafened, 
the  form  of  Christian  communion  without  the  spirit  of 
the  cross,  Sunday  overlaid  by  the  cares  of  the  preced- 
ing and  the  forecast  shadows  of  the  coming  week,  are  a 
moral  specific ;  and  many  who  call,  and  perhaps  think, 
themselves  Christians  are  in  intense  need  of  precisely 
the  lessons  which  these  disasters  among  their  own  brother- 
hood may  teach." 

All  the  appetites,  propensities,  lusts,  and  pas- 
sions which  we  cannot  control  are  incidental  to, 
and  evidences  of,  our  unregenerate  nature;  are 
the  weaknesses  of  the  flesh  which  it  is  the  end 
and  purpose  of  our  probationary  life  on  earth 
to  subdue.  It  is  a  fact  most  important,  early  to 
learn  and  never  to  lose  sight  of,  that  all  these 
appetites,  propensities,  and  passions  are  unre- 
lenting enemies  of  sleep.  It  is  the  most  impres- 
sive illustration  of  the  inflexible  logic  of  Provi- 
dence that  as  they  all,  if  allowed  free  rein,  tend  to 
impair  the  health,  blunt  the  senses  one  by  one, 
diminish,  and  finally  extinguish,  the  enjoyment 
they  were  designed  to  yield;  they,  in  that  way, 
like  old  age,  are  permitted  to  serve  in  a  measure 
the  purposes  of  sleep,  in  detaching  man  from  the 
world  by  depriving  him  of  the  means  of  enjoying 
what  he  persists  in  abusing,  and  thus  of  "with- 
drawing him  from  his  purpose,  and  in  keeping 
him  from  the  pit." 

It  would  be  well  for  every  one  to  realize  that  all 
the  virtues  favor  sleep  and  all  the  vices  discour- 
age it.  In  the  gratification  of  our  appetites  it  is 

196 


Nature's  Rebuke  of  Intemperance 

our  highest  duty  to  respect  the  laws  of  our  being 
which  impose  self-control.  Whether  we  eat  too 
much,  or  drink  too  much,  or  devote  too  large  a 
portion  of  our  time  and  strength  to  any  employ- 
ment or  amusement,  the  first  rebuke  which  nature 
administers  for  such  intemperance  is  a  change  in 
the  quantity  or  quality  of  our  sleep;  conscience, 
attended  by  the  dragons  of  remorse,  follows  us  to 
our  chamber  and  tells  us  that  sleep  shall  not  re- 
fresh us  until  we  repent  of  our  excesses.  In  the 
degree  in  which  we  respect  the  laws  of  our  being, 
which  are  the  ordinances  of  our  Creator,  will  be 
the  sufficiency  of  our  rest.  In  the  degree  that  we 
disregard  them  will  be  its  insufficiency. 

The  desire — nay,  the  necessity — for  sleep  should 
be  regarded  as  a  providential  arrangement  to 
induce  us  to  cultivate  the  virtues  most  favorable 
to  its  enjoyment,  just  as  hunger  and  thirst  are 
the  agents  of  Providence  for  teaching  us  to  be 
frugal,  industrious,  and  temperate,  that  they  may 
be  reasonably  gratified. 

If  these  things  be  true  about  sleep,  they  obviously 
impose  duties  upon  the  pulpit,  upon  the  press, 
and  upon  all  human  society  which  are  sadly  neg- 
lected. 


APPENDIX   A 

• 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson's  estimate  of  Sweden- 

borg: 

"...  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  .  .  .  who  appears  to 
his  contemporaries  a  visionary,  ...  no  doubt  led  the 
most  real  life  of  any  man  then  in  the  world ;  and  now, 
when  the  royal  and  ducal  Frederics  ...  of  that  day 
have  slid  into  oblivion,  he  begins  to  spread  himself 
into  the  minds  of  thousands.  As  happens  in  great 
men,  he  seemed,  by  the  variety  and  amount  of  his  powers, 
to  be  a  composition  of  several  persons,  like  the  giant 
fruits  which  are  matured  in  gardens  by  the  union  of 
four  or  five  single  blossoms.  .  .  .  He  was  a  scholar 
from  a  child.  .  .  .  The  genius  which  was  to  penetrate 
the  science  of  the  age  with  a  far  more  subtile  science, 
to  pass  the  bounds  of  space  and  time,  venture  into  the 
dim  spirit-realm,  to  attempt  to  establish  a  new  religion 
in  the  world,  began  its  letters  in  quarries  and  forges,  in 
the  smelting-pot  and  crucible,  in  ship-yards  and  dissect- 
ing-rooms. No  one  man  is,  perhaps,  able  to  judge  of  the 
merits  of  his  works  on  so  many  subjects.  ...  It  seems 
that  he  anticipated  much  science  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. .  .  .  His  superb  speculation,  as  from  a  tower, 
over  nature  and  arts,  without  ever  losing  sight  of  the 
texture  and  sequence  of  things,  almost  realizes  his 
own  picture  in  the  Principia  of  the  original  integrity 
of  man.  .  .  .  One  of  the  missouriums  and  mastodons 
of  literature,  he  is  not  to  be  measured  by  whole  colleges 

199 


Appendix  A 

of  ordinary  scholars.  His  stalwart  presence  would 
flutter  the  gowns  of  a  university.  Our  books  are  false 
by  being  fragmentary.  .  .  .  But  Swedenborg  is  sys- 
tematic, and  respective  of  the  world  in  every  sentence ; 
all  the  means  are  orderly  given ;  his  faculties  work 
with  astronomic  punctuality,  and  his  admirable  writing 
is  pure  from  all  pertness  and  egotism.  He  named  his 
favorite  views,  the  Doctrine  of  Forms,  the  Doctrine  of 
Series  and  Degrees,  the  Doctrine  of  Influx,  the  Doctrine 
of  Correspondence.  His  statement  of  these  doctrines 
deserves  to  be  studied  in  his  books.  Not  every  man 
can  read  them,  but  they  will  reward  him  who  can.  .  .  . 
His  writings  would  be  a  sufficient  library  to  a  lonely 
and  athletic  student ;  and  the  Economy  of  the  Animal 
Kingdom  is  one  of  those  books  which,  by  the  sustained 
dignity  of  thinking,  is  an  honor  to  the  human  race.  .  .  . 
The  Animal  Kingdom  is  a  book  of  wonderful  merits. 
It  was  written  with  the  highest  end — to  put  science  and 
the  soul,  long  estranged  from  each  other,  at  one  again.  .  . . 
His  religion  thinks  for  him  and  is  of  universal  applica- 
tion. He  turns  it  on  every  side;  it  fits  every  part  of 
life,  interprets  and  dignifies  every  circumstance,  .  .  . 
a  teaching  which  accompanied  him  all  day,  .  .  .  into 
his  thinking,  .  .  .  into  society,  .  .  .  into  natural  ob- 
jects, .  .  .  and  opened  the  future  world  by  indicating 
the  continuity  of  the  same  laws.  .  .  .  That  slow  but 
commanding  influence  which  he  has  acquired  .  .  . 
must  be  excessive,  .  .  .  and  have  its  tides  before  it 
subsides  into  a  permanent  amount." 

Rev.  Edwin  Paxton  Hood's  estimate  of  Swe- 
denborg : 

"  Swedenborg  was  one  of  the  profoundest  mathema- 
ticians of  his  age,  a  deep  and  acute  thinker,  a  subtle 
200 


Appendix  A 

logician,  a  various  and  versatile  scholar — above  all,  a 
calm  and  most  quiet  bookman  and  penman,  indisposed 
for  any  company,  and  never  seen  to  court  the  company 
of  the  ignorant  and  the  vulgar — ever  the  resort  of  the 
fanatic;  a  man  of  few  words,  until  compelled  to  talk, 
or  talking  for  a  purpose ;  cool  in  temperament ;  never 
rocked  by  passion  or  impulse ;  always,  as  far  as  human- 
ity can  be,  in  equilibrium,  weighing  all  his  thoughts 
and  all  his  actions ;  perpetually  bent  upon  giving  rea- 
sons for  things ;  a  man  of  strong  inductive  habits  and 
powers,  and  consistent ;  a  whole  life  of  invariable  rec- 
titude. He  was  a  Titan,  and  must  take  his  place  among 
the  very  highest  and  widest  minds  of  our  world," 

Thomas  Carlyle's  estimate  of  Swedenborg : 

"  A  man  of  great  and  indisputable  cultivation,  strong, 
mathematical  intellect,  and  the  most  pious,  seraphic 
turn  of  mind;  a  man  beautiful,  lovable,  and  tragical 
to  me,  with  many  thoughts  in  him  which,  when  I  in- 
terpret them  for  myself,  I  find  to  belong  to  the  high 
and  perennial  in  human  thought.  Whatever  I  may 
conjecture  in  my  own  defence  about  the  strange  im- 
pediments and  unconquerable  imprisoning  conditions 
under  which  he  had  to  live  and  to  meditate,  surely  I 
am  very  far,  indeed,  from  ranking  him,  or  those  that 
honestly  follow  him,  under  any  dishonorable  category." 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge's  estimate  of  Sweden- 
borg: 

"  I  can  venture  to  assert  that  as  a  moralist  Sweden- 
borg is  above  all  praise ;  and  that  as  a  naturalist,  psy- 
chologist,  and   theologian  he  has  strong   and   varied 
201 


Appendix  A 

claims  on  the  gratitude  and  admiration  of  the  profes- 
sional and  philosophical  student." 

Henry  James's  estimate  of  Swedenborg: 

"  I  fully  concede  to  Swedenborg  an  extreme  sobriety 
of  mind  displayed  under  all  the  exceptional  circum- 
stances of  his  career,  and  which  ends  by  making  us 
feel  at  last  his  every  word  to  be  almost  insipid  with 
veracity.  I  cordially  appreciate,  moreover,  the  rare 
destitution  of  wilfulness  which  characterizes  all  his 
researches;  or,  rather,  the  childlike  docility  of  spirit 
which  leads  him  to  seek  and  to  recognize,  under  all 
the  most  contradictory  aspects  of  nature,  the  footsteps 
of  the  Highest. 

"  His  books  are  a  dry,  unimpassioned,  unexaggerated 
exposition  of  the  things  he  daily  saw  and  heard  in  the 
world  of  spirits,  and  of  the  spiritual  laws  which  these 
things  illustrate;  with  scarcely  any  effort  whatever 
to  blink  the  obvious  outrage  his  experiences  offer  to 
sensuous  prejudice,  or  to  conciliate  any  interest  in  his 
reader  which  is  not  prompted  by  the  latter's  own  original 
and  unaffected  relish  of  the  truth.  Such  sincere  books, 
it  seems  to  me,  were  never  before  written." 

An  estimate  of  Swedenborg  by  the  late  Hon. 
Theophilus  Parsons,  for  twenty-two  years  profess- 
or in  the  Cambridge  Law  School : 

"  I  regard  him  as  a  man  of  remarkable  ability  and 
great  and  varied  culture,  taught,  as  no  other  man  ever 
was  taught,  truths  which  no  other  man  ever  learned; 
and  thus  instructed  that  he  might  introduce  among 
men  a  new  system  of  truth  or  doctrine,  excelling  in 
202 


Appendix  A 

character  and  exceeding  in  value  any  system  of  truth 
before  known;  a  new  gift,  demanding,  as  the  instru- 
ment by  which  it  could  be  communicated,  a  man  not 
only  possessing  extraordinary  capacity  and  cultivation, 
but  in  both  capacity  and  cultivation  definitely  adapted 
to  the  peculiar  work  he  had  to  do." 


APPENDIX  B 

Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Calvin.* 

"  I  have  frequently  conversed  with  these  three  lead- 
ing Reformers  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  in  that 
way  have  learned  what  the  state  of  their  life  has  been, 
from  their  first  entrance  into  the  spiritual  world  up  to 
the  present  time." 

LUTHER. 

"  As  for  Luther,  from  the  time  when  he  first  went  to 
the  spiritual  world  he  was  a  most  vehement  propagator 
and  defender  of  his  dogmas,  and  his  zeal  for  them 
increased  as  the  number  of  those  from  the  earth  who 
agreed  with  and  favored  him  increased.  A  house 
was  given  him  there  like  the  one  he  had  in  the  life 
of  the  body  at  Eisleben.  In  the  centre  of  this  house 
he  erected  a  sort  of  throne,  somewhat  elevated,  where 
he  sat ;  he  admitted  hearers  through  the  open  door,  and 
arranged  them  in  order;  nearest  to  himself  he  invited 
those  who  were  the  more  favorable  to  him ;  behind  them 
he  placed  those  less  favorable,  and  then  he  made  speeches 
to  them,  occasionally  permitting  questions  in  order 
that  he  might  obtain  a  kind  of  clew  whereby  to  recom- 
mence the  web  of  his  discourse.  Owing  to  this  general 
favor,  he  at  length  imbibed  a  power  of  persuasion,  which 
is  so  efficacious  in  the  spiritual  world  that  no  one  can 

*  Swedenbofrg's  True  Christian  Religion,  nos.  796-799. 
204 


Appendix  B 

resist  it  or  speak  against  what  is  said.  But  as  this 
was  a  kind  of  incantation  used  by  the  ancients,  he  was 
forbidden  to  speak  from  that  power  of  persuasion  any 
more ;  and  after  this,  as  before,  he  taught  from  the  mem- 
ory and  understanding  together.  This  power  of  per- 
suasion, which  is  a  kind  of  incantation,  springs  from 
self-love,  owing  to  which  it  finally  becomes  of  such  a 
nature  that  when  any  one  contradicts  he  not  only  at- 
tacks the  subject  in  question,  but  also  the  person  him- 
self. This  was  the  state  of  Luther's  life  up  to  the  time 
of  the  last  judgment,  which  took  place  in  the  spiritual 
world  in  the  year  1757;  but  a  year  after  that  he  was 
removed  from  his  first  house  to  another,  and  at  the 
same  time  underwent  a  change  of  state.  And  in  this 
state,  having  heard  that  I,  who  was  in  the  natural  world, 
spoke  with  those  in  the  spiritual  world,  he,  among 
others,  came  to  me;  and  after  some  questions  and  an- 
swers he  perceived  that  there  is  at  this  day  an  end  of 
the  former  church  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  church, 
of  which  Daniel  prophesied,  and  which  the  Lord  himself 
foretold  in  the  evangelists;  he  also  perceived  that  this 
new  church  was  meant  by  the  New  Jerusalem  in  Revela- 
tion, and  by  the  everlasting  gospel  which  the  angel 
flying  in  the  midst  of  heaven  preached  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  (xiv.  6).  At  this  he  became  very  angry 
and  railed.  But  as  he  perceived  that  the  new  heaven 
(which  was  formed,  and  is  still  forming,  of  those  who 
acknowledge  the  Lord  alone  as  the  God  of  heaven  and 
earth,  according  to  his  words  in  Matt,  xxviii.  18)  [in- 
creased], and  as  he  observed  the  number  of  his  own 
congregations  daily  diminishing,  he  ceased  his  railing 
and  came  nearer  to  me,  and  began  to  talk  with  me  more 
familiarly.  And  after  he  had  been  convinced  that  he 
had  not  derived  his  principal  dogma  of  justification  by 
205 


Appendix  B 

faith  alone  from  the  Word,  but  from  his  own  intelligence, 
he  suffered  himself  to  be  instructed  respecting  the  Lord, 
charity,  true  faith,  free-will,  and  redemption  also,  and 
this  exclusively  from  the  Word.  At  length,  after  being 
convinced,  he  began  to  favor  more  and  more  those  truths 
of  which  the  new  church  is  formed,  and  finally  to  con- 
firm himself  in  them.  At  this  time  he  was  with  me 
daily;  and  then,  as  often  as  he  called  those  truths  to 
mind,  he  began  to  laugh  at  his  former  dogmas  as  things 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  Word.  I  heard  him  say: 
'  Do  not  be  surprised  at  my  seizing  upon  justification 
by  faith  alone,  excluding  charity  from  its  spiritual 
essence,  also  taking  away  from  men  all  free-will  in 
things  spiritual,  and  affirming  other  things  that  depend 
on  faith  alone  once  accepted,  as  links  on  a  chain,  in- 
asmuch as  my  object  was  to  break  away  from  the  Roman 
Catholics,  and  this  object  I  could  not  otherwise  compass 
and  attain.  I,  therefore,  do  not  wonder  at  my  own 
errors,  but  I  do  wonder  that  one  crazy  man  could  make 
so  many  others  crazy.'  As  he  said  this  he  looked  at 
some  dogmatic  writers  beside  him,  men  of  celebrity 
in  his  time,  faithful  followers  of  his  doctrine,  who  saw 
nothing  contradictory  to  those  dogmas  in  the  sacred 
Scripture,  although  it  does  contradict  them  plainly. 
It  was  told  me  by  the  examining  angels  that  this  leader 
was  in  a  state  of  conversion  before  many  others  who 
had  confirmed  themselves  in  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  alone,  because  in  his  childhood,  before  he  un- 
dertook the  Reformation,  he  had  imbibed  the  dogma  of 
the  pre-eminence  of  charity;  and  for  this  reason  also, 
both  in  his  writings  and  in  his  discourses,  he  taught 
charity  so  notably ;  and  as  a  consequence,  justifying  faith 
with  him  was  implanted  in  his  external-natural  man, 
but  had  not  taken  root  in  his  internal-spiritual  man. 
206 


Appendix  B 

It  is  otherwise,  however,  with  those  who  in  their  child- 
hood have  confirmed  themselves  against  the  spirituality 
of  charity,  which  also  takes  place  of  itself  while  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone  is  being  established  by  confirma- 
tions. I  have  conversed  with  the  Prince  of  Saxony, 
with  whom  Luther  had  been  associated  in  the  world, 
and  he  told  me  that  he  had  often  upbraided  Luther, 
especially  for  separating  charity  from  faith,  and  de- 
claring the  latter  to  be  saving  and  the  former  not,  when, 
nevertheless,  not  only  does  the  sacred  Scripture  unite 
those  two  universal  means  of  salvation,  but  Paul  also 
places  charity  before  faith,  when  he  says,  'And  now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three ;  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  charity'  (i  Cor.  xiii.  13).  But  he  said  that 
Luther  as  often  replied  that  he  could  not  do  otherwise, 
because  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  This  prince  is  among 
the  happy." 

MELANCTHON. 

"  As  to  what  the  lot  of  Melancthon  was  when  he  first 
entered  the  spiritual  world,  and  what  it  was  afterwards, 
I  have  been  permitted  to  learn  many  things,  not  only 
from  the  angels,  but  also  from  himself,  for  I  have  con- 
versed with  him  repeatedly — yet  not  so  frequently  as 
with  Luther,  nor  so  near  to  him.  I  have  not  conversed 
with  him  so  frequently  nor  so  near,  because  he  could 
not  approach  me  as  Luther  did,  for  the  reason  that  he 
had  given  his  exclusive  attention  to  justification  by 
faith  alone,  but  not  to  charity;  and  I  was  surrounded 
by  angelic  spirits  who  were  principled  in  charity,  and 
they  interfered  with  his  approach  to  me.  I  heard  that 
when  he  first  entered  the  spiritual  world  a  house  was 
prepared  for  him  like  that  in  which  he  had  dwelt  in 
the  world.  This  also  takes  place  with  the  most  of  new- 
207 


Appendix  B 

comers,  owing  to  which  they  do  not  know  but  they  are 
still  in  the  natural  world,  and  the  time  elapsed  since 
their  death  seems  to  them  merely  as  a  sleep.  Everything 
in  his  room  was  also  like  what  he  formerly  had :  he  had 
the  same  kind  of  a  table,  the  same  kind  of  a  secretary 
with  drawers,  and  also  the  same  kind  of  a  library;  so 
that  as  soon  as  he  came  there,  as  if  he  had  just  awakened 
from  a  sleep,  he  seated  himself  at  the  table  and  con- 
tinued his  writing,  and  that,  too,  on  the  subject  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone,  and  so  on  for  several  days,  say- 
ing nothing  whatever  about  charity.  The  angels,  per- 
ceiving this,  asked  him  through  messengers  why  he 
did  not  write  about  charity  also.  He  replied  that  there 
was  nothing  belonging  to  the  church  in  charity,  for  if 
it  were  to  be  received  as  in  any,  way  an  essential  prin- 
ciple of  the  church,  man  would  also  attribute  to  him- 
self the  merit  of  justification,  and  consequently  of  sal- 
vation, and  thus  he  would  also  rob  faith  of  its  spiritual 
essence.  When  the  angels  who  were  over  his  head 
perceived  this,  and  when  the  angels  who  were  associated 
with  him  when  he  was  outside  of  his  house  heard  it, 
they  all  withdrew ;  for  angels  are  associated  with  every 
new-comer  at  the  beginning.  A  few  weeks  after  this  oc- 
currence the  things  that  he  used  in  his  room  began  to 
be  obscured  and  at  length  to  disappear,  until  at  last 
there  was  nothing  left  there  but  the  table,  paper,  and 
inkstand ;  and,  moreover,  the  walls  of  his  room  seemed 
to  be  plastered  with  lime,  and  the  floor  to  be  covered 
with  yellow  bricks,  and  his  clothing  to  become  coarser. 
Wondering  at  this,  he  inquired  of  those  about  him  why 
it  was  so;  and  he  was  told  that  it  was  because  he  had 
removed  charity  from  the  church,  which  was,  never- 
theless, its  heart.  But  as  he  often  denied  this,  and 
again  commenced  to  write  about  faith  as  the  one  only 
208 


Appendix  B 

essential  of  the  church,  and  the  means  of  salvation, 
and  to  remove  charity  more  and  more,  he  suddenly 
seemed  to  himself  to  be  under  ground  in  a  certain  prison, 
where  there  were  others  like  him.  And  when  he  wished 
to  go  out  he  was  detained,  and  it  was  announced  to 
him  that  no  other  lot  awaited  those  who  thrust  charity 
and  good  works  outside  of  the  doors  of  the  church. 
But  inasmuch  as  he  had  been  one  of  the  Reformers 
of  the  church,  he  was  released  from  that  prison  by  the 
Lord's  command,  and  sent  back  to  his  former  room, 
where  there  was  nothing  but  the  table,  paper,  and  ink- 
stand. But  still,  owing  to  his  confirmed  ideas,  he  be- 
daubed the  paper  with  the  same  error,  so  that  he  could 
not  be  kept  from  being  alternately  sent  down  to  his 
captive  fellows  and  sent  back  again.  When  sent  back, 
he  appeared  in  a  garment  made  of  a  hairy  skin,  because 
faith  without  charity  is  cold.  He  told  me  himself  that 
there  was  another  room  adjoining  his  own  in  the  rear, 
in  which  there  were  three  tables,  at  which  sa*  men  like 
himself,  who  had  also  exiled  charity,  and  that  a  fourth 
table  also  sometimes  appeared  there,  on  which  were 
seen  monstrous  things  in  various  forms,  by  which, 
however,  they  were  not  frightened  from  their  work. 
He  said  that  he  conversed  with  these  others,  and  was 
confirmed  by  them  daily.  After  some  time,  however, 
incited  by  fear,  he  began  to  write  something  about 
charity;  but  what  he  wrote  on  the  paper  one  day  he 
did  not  see  the  next ;  for  this  happens  to  every  one  there 
when  he  commits  anything  to  paper  from  the  external 
man  only,  and  not  at  the  same  time  from  the  internal, 
thus  from  compulsion  and  not  from  freedom.  It  is 
obliterated  of  itself.  But  after  the  establishment  by 
the  Lord  of  the  new  heaven  was  begun,  by  the  light 
from  this  heaven  he  began  to  think  that  perhaps  he 
14  209 


Appendix  B 

might  be  in  error ;  so  that,  owing  to  anxiety  about  his 
lot,  he  felt  impressed  upon  him  some  interior  ideas  re- 
specting charity.  In  this  state  he  consulted  the  Word, 
and  then  his  eyes  were  opened,  and  he  saw  that  it  was 
all  rilled  with  love  to  God  and  love  to  the  neighbor,  so 
that  it  was  as  the  Lord  says:  on  these  two  command- 
ments hang  the  law  and  the  prophets,  that  is,  the  whole 
Word.  From  this  time  he  was  transferred  more  in- 
teriorly to  the  southwest,  and  so  to  another  house,  from 
which  he  conversed  with  me,  saying  that  his  writings 
on  charity  did  not  then  disappear  as  formerly,  but  ap- 
peared obscurely  the  next  day.  One  thing  I  wondered 
at,  that  when  he  walked  his  steps  had  a  striking  sound, 
like  those  of  a  man  walking  with  iron  heels  on  a  stone 
pavement.  To  this  must  be  added  that  when  any  novi- 
tiate from  the  world  entered  his  room  to  talk  with  him 
or  see  him,  he  would  summon  one  from  among  spirits 
given  to  magic,  who  by  fantasy  could  call  up  various 
beautiful  shapes,  and  who  then  adorned  his  chamber 
with  ornaments  and  flowered  tapestry,  and  also  with 
the  appearance  of  a  library  in  the  centre.  As  soon  as 
the  visitors  were  gone,  however,  these  shapes  vanished, 
and  the  former  plastering  and  emptiness  returned. 
But  this  was  when  he  was  in  his  former  state." 

CALVIN 

"  Of  Calvin  I  have  heard  the  following :  I.  When  he 
first  went  to  the  spiritual  world  he  would  not  believe 
but  that  he  was  still  in  the  world  where  he  was  born ; 
and  although  he  heard  from  the  angels  associated  with 
him  first  in  order  that  he  was  then  in  their  world,  and 
not  in  his  former  one,  he  said,  '  I  have  the  same  body, 
the  same  hands,  and  similar  senses.'  But  the  angels 
210 


Appendix  B 

instructed  him  to  the  effect  that  he  was  then  in  a  sub- 
stantial body,  and  that  he  was  formerly  not  only  in 
that  same  body,  but  also  in  a  material  one,  which  in- 
vested the  substantial;  and  that  the  material  body  had 
been  cast  off,  the  substantial  body,  from  which  a  man 
is  a  man,  remaining.  This  he  at  first  understood ; 
but  the  day  afterwards  he  returned  to  his  former  be- 
lief, that  he  was  still  in  the  world  where  he  was  born. 
This  was  because  he  was  a  sensual  man,  having  no 
belief  but  what  he  could  draw  from  the  objects  of  the 
bodily  senses ;  from  this  arose  the  fact  that  all  the  dog- 
mas of  his  faith  were  conclusions  drawn  from  his  self- 
derived  intelligence,  and  not  from  the  Word.  His  quoting 
the  Word  was  in  order  to  win  the  assent  of  the  common 
people.  2.  After  this  first  period,  the  angels  having 
left  him,  he  wandered  about  inquiring  for  those  who 
in  ancient  times  believed  in  predestination ;  and  he  was 
told  that  they  had  been  removed  from  that  place,  and 
shut  up  and  covered  over,  and  there  was  no  way  open 
to  them  except  in  a  backward  direction  under  the  earth ; 
but  that  the  disciples  of  Godeschalk  still  went  about 
freely,  and  sometimes  assembled  in  a  place  called,  in 
spiritual  language,  Pyris.  And  as  he  longed  for  their 
company,  he  was  conducted  to  an  assembly  where  some 
of  them  were  standing ;  and  when  he  came  among  them 
he  was  in  his  heart's  delight,  and  bound  himself  to 
them  by  interior  friendship.  3.  But  after  the  followers 
of  Godeschalk  were  led  away  to  their  brethren  in  the 
cavern  Calvin  became  tired;  he,  therefore,  sought  here 
and  there  for  an  asylum,  and  was  finally  received  into 
a  certain  society,  composed  wholly  of  simple-minded 
persons,  some  of  whom  were  also  religious;  and  when 
he  saw  that  they  knew  nothing  about  predestination, 
and  could  not  understand  anything  about  it,  he  betook 
211 


Appendix  B 

himself  to  one  corner  of  the  society,  and  there  hid  him- 
self for  a  long  time ;  nor  did  he  open  his  mouth  on  any 
ecclesiastical  subject.  This  was  providential,  in  order 
that  he  might  withdraw  from  his  error  respecting  pre- 
destination, and  that  the  ranks  of  those  who  after  the 
Synod  of  Dort  adhered  to  that  detestable  heresy  might 
be  filled  up ;  they  were  all  gradually  sent  away  to  their 
fellows  in  the  cavern.  4.  At  length  it  was  asked  by 
the  modern  Predestinarians,  Where  is  Calvin?  And 
after  a  search  he  was  found  on  the  confines  of  a  certain 
society  consisting  exclusively  of  simple-minded  persons. 
He  was,  therefore,  called  away  from  there,  and  conducted 
to  a  certain  governor  who  was  filled  with  similar  dregs. 
This  governor,  therefore,  took  him  into  his  house  and 
guarded  him,  and  this  until  the  new  heaven  began  to 
be  established  by  the  Lord;  and  then,  as  his  guardian 
governor  was  cast  out  together  with  his  troop,  Calvin 
betook  himself  to  a  certain  house  of  harlotry,  and  re- 
mained there  for  some  time.  5.  And  as  he  then  en- 
joyed the  liberty  of  wandering  about,  and  also  of  coming 
near  to  the  place  where  I  was  stopping,  I  was  permitted 
to  converse  with  him.  At  first  I  spoke  of  the  new  heaven 
which  at  this  day  is  being  formed  by  those  who  ac- 
knowledge the  Lord  alone  as  the  God  of  heaven  and 
earth,  according  to  his  words  in  Matt,  xxviii.  18.  I 
told  him  that  they  believe  that  He  and  the  Father  are 
one  (John  x.  30),  that  He  is  in  the  Father  and  the  Father 
in  Him,  that  whosoever  sees  and  knows  Him  sees  and 
knows  the  Father  also  (John  xiv.  6-1 1 ),  and  that  thus 
there  is  one  God  in  the  church  as  in  heaven.  At  first, 
when  I  said  this,  he  was  as  usual  silent ;  but  after  half 
an  hour  he  broke  the  silence  and  said :  '  Was  not  Christ 
a  man,  the  son  of  Mary,  the  wife  of  Joseph?  How 
can  a  man  be  worshipped  as  God?'  I  answered,.  '  Is 
212 


Appendix  B 

not  Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer  and  Saviour,  both  God 
and  man?'  He  replied,  '  He  is  both  God  and  man ; 
nevertheless  the  divinity  is  not  his,  but  the  Father's.' 
Tasked,  'Where,  then,  is  Christ?'  He  answered,  'In 
the  lowest  parts  of  heaven,  as  He  proved  by  his  humilia- 
tion before  the  Father  and  by  suffering  himself  to  be 
crucified.'  To  this  he  added  some  witty  remarks  about 
the  worship  of  Him,  which  then  broke  forth  from  the 
world  into  his  memory,  the  sum  of  which  was,  that 
the  worship  of  Christ  was  nothing  but  idolatry,  and  he 
wanted  to  add  something  horrible  about  that  worship; 
but  the  angels  who  were  with  me  shut  his  lips.  But 
I,  being  zealous  to  convert  him,  said,  '  The  Lord  our 
Saviour  is  not  only  both  God  and  Man,  but  in  Him, 
moreover,  God  is  Man  and  Man  is  God.'  And  this  I 
confirmed  by  Paul's  saying,  '  That  in  Him  dwelleth 
all  the  fulness  of  divinity  bodily  '  (Col.  ii.  9) ;  and  by 
John's,  '  That  He  is  the  true  God  and  eternal  life  '  (l 
Epistle  v.  20) ;  as  also  from  the  words  of  the  Lord  him- 
self, '  That  it  is  the  will  of  the  Father  that  whosoever 
believes  on  the  Son  hath  eternal  life,  and  that  he  who 
believes  not  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abid- 
eth  on  him '  (John  iii.  36 ;  vi.  40) ;  and,  finally,  by  what 
is  called  the  Athanasian  Creed,  which  declares  that  in 
Christ,  God  and  Man  are  not  two  but  one,  and  are  in 
one  Person,  like  the  soul  and  body  in  man.  Hearing 
this,  he  replied :  '  What  are  all  those  things  which 
you  have  presented  from  the  Word  but  empty  sounds? 
Is  not  the  Word  the  book  of  all  heresies,  and  so  like 
the  weathercocks  on  housetops  and  ships'  masts,  which 
turn  every  way  according  to  the  wind?  It  is  predes- 
tination alone  that  determines  all  things  pertaining  to 
religion;  this  is  the  habitation  arid  tabernacle  where 
they  all  meet ;  and  faith,  through  which  come  justifica- 
213 


Appendix  B 

tion  and  salvation,  is  there  the  innermost  place  and 
sanctuary.  Has  any  man  free-will  in  spiritual  things? 
Is  not  the  whole  of  salvation  gratuitous?  Any  argu- 
ments, therefore,  against  these  principles,  and  so  against 
predestination,  I  listen  to  and  value  as  much  as  I  do 
eructations  from  the  stomach  or  the  rumbling  of  the 
bowels.  Hence  I  have  thought  that  a  temple  wherein 
they  teach  anything  else  from  the  Word,  and  the  crowd 
there  congregated,  are  like  a  pen  of  beasts  containing 
both  sheep  and  wolves,  the  latter  being  muzzled,  how- 
ever, by  the  laws  of  civil  justice,  lest  they  should  attack 
the  sheep  (by  the  sheep  I  mean  the  predestined);  and 
I  regard  the  preaching  and  praying  there  like  so  much 
hiccoughing.  But  I  will  give  you  my  confession  of 
faith ;  it  is  this :  There  is  a  God,  and  He  is  omnipotent ; 
and  there  is  no  salvation  for  any  but  those  who  are 
elected  and  predestined  to  heaven  by  God  the  Father; 
and  all  others  are  condemned  to  their  lot,  that  is,  to  their 
fate.'  Hearing  this,  I  retorted,  with  much  warmth, 
'  What  you  say  is  impious.  Begone,  wicked  spirit! 
Since  you  are  in  the  spiritual  world,  do  you  not  know 
there  is  a  heaven  and  a  hell,  and  that  predestination 
involves  that  some  are  enrolled  for  heaven  and  some 
for  hell?  Can  you,  then,  form  to  yourself  any  other 
idea  of  God  than  as  of  a  tyrant,  who  admits  His  favorites 
into  the  city  and  sends  the  rest  to  the  rack?  You  ought 
to  be  ashamed  of  yourself '  I  then  read  to  him  what 
is  written  in  the  dogmatic  book  of  the  evangelical  Prot- 
estants, called  Formula  Concordiae,  about  the  erroneous 
doctrine  of  the  Calvinists  respecting  the  worship  of 
the  Lord  and  predestination.  Respecting  the  worship 
of  the  Lord,  as  follows :  '  It  is  damnable  idolatry,  if 
the  confidence  and  faith  of  the  heart  are  placed  in  Christ, 
not  only  according  to  his  divine,  but  also  according  to 
214 


Appendix  B 

his  human,  nature,  and  the  honor  of  worship  is  directed 
to  both.'  And  respecting  predestination,  as  follows: 
'  Christ  did  not  die  for  all  men,  but  only  for  the  elect. 
God  has  created  the  greater  part  of  men  for  eternal  dam- 
nation, and  does  not  wish  that  this  part  should  be  con- 
verted and  live.  The  elect  and  born  again  cannot  lose 
faith  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  although  they  should  commit 
all  kinds  of  great  sins  and  crimes.  But  those  who 
are  not  elected  are  necessarily  damned,  nor  can  they 
attain  to  salvation  even  if  they  were  to  be  baptized  a 
thousand  times,  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  daily,  and, 
moreover,  to  lead  as  holy  and  blameless  a  life  as  it  is 
ever  possible  to  live  '  (from  the  Leipsic  edition  of  1756, 
PP-  837,  838).  After  reading  this,  I  asked  him  whether 
this  which  was  written  in  that  book  was  from  his  doc- 
trine or  not.  He  said  that  it  was,  but  that  he  did  not 
remember  whether  or  not  those  very  words  had  flowed 
from  his  pen,  although  they  might  have  flowed  from 
his  lips.  All  the  servants  of  the  Lord  hearing  this, 
withdrew  from  him,  and  he  betook  himself  hastily  to 
a  way  that  led  to  a  cave  which  is  occupied  by  those 
who  have  confirmed  in  themselves  the  execrable  dogma 
of  predestination.  I  afterwards  conversed  with  some 
of  those  imprisoned  in  that  cave  and  asked  about  their 
lot.  They  said  that  they  were  compelled  to  labor  for 
food,  that  all  were  enemies  of  each  other,  that  each 
sought  an  occasion  to  do  evil  to  the  other,  and  also  did  it 
whenever  he  found  the  slightest  opportunity,  and  that 
this  was  the  delight  of  their  lives.  On  predestination 
and'  the  predestinarians,  see  also  what  is  said  above, 
n.  485-488. 

"  I  have  also  conversed  with  many  others,  both  with 
followers  of  these  three  men  and  with  heretics  [or  other 
sects] ;  and  respecting  all  of  them  I  was  enabled  to  form 

215 


Appendix  B 

this  conclusion:  that  whoever  among  them  have  lived 
a  life  of  charity,  and  still  more  those  who  have  loved 
truth  because  it  is  truth,  in  the  spiritual  world  suffer 
themselves  to  be  instructed,  and  accept  the  doctrines  of 
the  new  church;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  who 
have  confirmed  themselves  in  falsities  of  religion,  and 
also  those  who  have  lived  an  evil  life,  do  not  suffer  them- 
selves to  be  instructed.  These  latter  remove  step  by 
step  from  the  new  heaven,  and  associate  themselves 
with  their  like  who  are  in  hell,  where  they  confirm  them- 
selves more  and  more  obstinately  against  the  worship 
of  the  Lord,  even  to  such  an  extent  that  they  cannot 
bear  to  hear  the  name  of  Jesus.  But  it  is  the  reverse 
in  heaven,  where  all  unanimously  acknowledge  the 
Lord  as  the  God  of  heaven." 


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